


Naruto Uchiha AU

by Lowkeywordplay



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gen, Naruto is secretly an Uchiha AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2018-12-09 01:28:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11658756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lowkeywordplay/pseuds/Lowkeywordplay
Summary: What if Minato and Kushina couldn't have kids on their own? What if Kushina's friend Mikoto wanted to help? What if Naruto was secretly an Uchiha? How will the world change as Naruto Namikaze, son of the Fourth Hokage (or so everyone believes) begins his journey as a ninja.





	1. Aftermath of Kyuubi Attack

            Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was once again Hokage or would be as soon as the formal ceremony was completed, sat before Konoha’s combined council, ninja and civilian leaders alike had all been gathered for this. He had just informed them of the fourth Hokage’s final actions and his wish for his son. “We should kill it and be done with the Fox” said one of the civilian council members. Aghast Lord Third raised his head to counter but before he could argue on the boy’s behalf another voice spoke.

            “No. Killing the vessel won’t kill the Kyuubi, it will just reincarnate in a few years time and there is no telling whether that would be in the Land of Fire or another ninja village’s territory we cannot risk allowing our enemies to get their hands on such power” as Danzo spoke, he used his one good eye to stare down any of the civilians who looked like they were going to argue. Hiruzen let a small smile cross his lips, thinking ‘For once I’m glad Danzo has a seat at these meetings even if our reasons differ at least I have one ally’. That smile turned into a grimace as Danzo continued speaking, “The Leaf has been left significantly weakened, that is why we need train the boy, so that he can become an asset to Konoha”. That statement caused the room to erupt into chaos as some thought the idea held merit while others believed the demon container should be kept far away from the life of a ninja; one male civilian had even suggested they lock the boy away out of sight for his entire life.

            “We will not be turning Naruto into a weapon” Hiruzen spoke with resolute resolve befitting the God of Shinobi. The room immediately quieted down, even Danzo knew better than to fight his old teammate on this, he had heard that tone only and handful of times in his life but on each of those occasion’s Hiruzen got his way. Hiruzen surveyed the room, seeing that no one was going to continue arguing, he moved on to his next point, “Now I believe we should pass a law keeping the younger generation from knowing that Naruto Namikaze is the nine-tails jinchuuriki at least until they come of an age where they’ll understand his sacrifice”.

            The previous accepting quiet turned to maelstrom of protests. “I don’t want my daughter anywhere near that thing” one civilian shouted. “What if it breaks free, our children need to stay far far away from it” another said, this time from the ninja’s side of the room, added to the chorus of ostracizing Naruto in the name of protecting their kids. “Namikaze?” the voice was level and coming from anyone else Hiruzen may not have worried but Danzo was the one who spoke. The room hushed to whisper as everyone noticed the two former teammates starring each other down. Lord Third nodded his head just once confirming that Danzo had heard right.

            “You cannot be serious” Danzo began, “if he bears the name Namikaze then every enemy his father gained will be coming after him. What do you plan on watching him every second of every day, Hokage” he spit the title out bitterly. “Because that is what it’ll take to stop Onoki, Stone will want revenge for what the yellow flash did and who better than his son?”  

            Glancing to the agreeing faces of the council Hiruzen acquiesced, “What do you propose then Danzo, he is a Namikaze after all?” Danzo smiled wickedly, already having formulated his answer before this meeting began, “He should be an Uzumaki like his mother, for his own safety of course. Unless you wish to court a pseudo-war with Stone over the life of just one boy”. ‘It may not be perfect but after a few years of the boy being ostracized and having no family to support him, I might be able to convince the boy to join ROOT of his own volition’ Danzo thought, smile still on his face.

            “You would deny him his heritage?” Hiruzen asked, doing his best to keep the anger from seeping into his tone. “I suppose you think we should deny him his family’s holdings and assets, as well, so that he won’t draw attention to himself?” he continued. Danzo nodded his head, saying “It is the best way to keep him safe and after all you’re the one that wanted us to treat him as if he was just another child. Or can you justify putting all of the Leaf in danger for the sake of just one boy”. Hiruzen looked to the crowd to see if any were willing to support him, but the faces he saw told him everything he needed to know. ‘Sadly Naruto, there is nothing I can do to prevent this’ he thought, just as he was about to agree with Danzo however a new voice spoke up.

            “The child has done nothing to warrant such an action, his family estate and assets should go to him, it’s what Lord Fourth would have wanted” everyone was surprised by who chose to speak, no one had noticed him tensing throughout the meeting as he kept a careful silence not wanting to draw attention to himself but his hand was forced, thus Fugaku spoke. “And what of Stone, Minato’s other enemies, and perhaps even our own allies who would rather not see the advent of a second flash?” Danzo questioned. “The newly built Namikaze estate borders the Uchiha’s it will be a simple measure for us to extend our protection to the boy until such time as he can protect himself” Fugaku answered, calmly his face void of emotion.

            “And what is the Uchiha’s stake in this?” Hiashi, the pale eyed patriarch of the Hyuga, questioned. Not for the first time Hiruzen grimaced at the clan’s rivalry, he had always tried to avoid favoring one side or the other, however, Fugaku was proving to be an unexpected ally to Naruto. Hiruzen was about to enter the conversation on the Uchiha’s behalf when Fugaku answered, “The Namikazes were my friends” pausing he looked around the room, “they were friends to all of us. Yet, you all would deny our Hokage’s last wish”. At this some looked down in shame while others looked outraged even at the insinuation that they would betray Minato. Fugaku continued, “My clan can easily help this boy, at least until Konoha has recovered and the Hokage has the resources to spare”. Hiruzen watched as many began nodding their heads in acquiescence to the idea.

            Seizing the positive momentum Hiruzen nodded to Fugaku, “Thank you, Fugaku. I may not yet have the ANBU to spare but when I do I’ll relieve some of the burden Naruto’s safety puts on your clan”. Fugaku nodded back, a smile gracing his lips a rare sight rarer still considering he was in a council meeting, “It is a small burden for the Uchiha to bear, and we will bear it till it is no longer required”. Other clans began announcing their own support and were offering to assign guards as well, but Hiruzen knowing the village needed capital for repairs delicately explained they would better serve the village by taking on high paying missions. Thus, the council meeting dragged on for a few more hours as they discussed how best to go about repairs and renovations of the areas devastated by the nine-tails’ attack.    

            Later that day Hiruzen was sitting in his office, even if he wasn’t to be sworn in till tomorrow he’d rather get a head start on his workload, he had not missed the mounds of paperwork he had to do but it was his job as Hokage. It was as he was going over the projected cost of removing debris and repairing Konoha’s central streets that he heard a knocking on his door. “Come in” he said, not bothering to look up from the sheet till he could see two sets of black pantlegs standing in front of his desk. When he looked up he saw that it was Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha, dressed entirely in black as was the whole village including Hiruzen. They would likely remain in black garb for the better part of a month as everyone mourned the losses the Kyuubi wrought. “Hokage” they both said, giving a small bow. He gestured for them to sit and they did. “Hokage I was wondering if we could speak to you in private” Fugaku started. Hiruzen nodded, “Very well what is it?” When both Fugaku and Mikoto remained silent the Hokage looked between them both puzzled for a moment. It was several seconds later when he realized what their silence was asking for. “Leave us” Hiruzen spoke. The room remained deathly quiet for another few seconds before the ANBU appeared by the door, saying “Hai Hokage” before disappearing out the door to take up positions elsewhere in the Hokage tower. After the door closed Mikoto stood up and began placing silencing seals about the room. “What we’re about to tell you is known to only five people, and two of them are dead” Fugaku spoke as Mikoto sat back down, gaining the Hiruzen’s undivided attention.   

            “Naruto is not of the Namikaze bloodline” Mikoto said. Hiruzen’s eyes widened to saucer like proportions as he ordered, “Explain!”. Mikoto sighed looking out the window wistfully before turning back to the Hokage, “I suppose I should start at the beginning. It all happened about ten months ago”

* * *

_“Kushina I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages” Mikoto said, a bright smile on her face. “Sorry about that. I’ve just been busy you know, with Minato being Hokage and all. It’s all just gotten a bit much at the moment” the red head replied, her tired voice betraying the false smile she plastered on. Mikoto concerned for her friend, asked, “Are you busy? Why don’t you come have tea with me?” Before she could answer Mikoto had grabbed her by the arm and had already began dragging her to the Uchiha compound._

_As she neared her home, Mikoto saw the front door open, Itachi walking out. Seeing his mother and Kushina, Itachi stood to the side and held the door open. “Thank you, Itachi honey. Could you pick up some milk while you’re out?” Itachi nodded his head at his mother and bowed his head to Kushina, showing the proper respect to the Hokage’s wife, as they passed him. As they entered the home Mikoto quickly brought Kushina into the kitchen hoping to cheer the visibly deflated woman up a little bit._

_They talked amicably for close to an hour and drinking their green tea as they listened to each other’s stories, until suddenly Mikoto sprung up from her seat and ran into the bathroom. Kushina quickly followed, wondering what was going on. As soon as she made it to the toilet Kushina’s unasked question was answered as Mikoto slumped over it and began retching. Kushina sat down with her carefully pulling the hair away from her face and rubbing her back as Mikoto dry heaved a few times. “I thought the morning sickness was bad with Itachi” she said. “But this one doesn’t know the difference between morning and afternoon” she added with a reluctant smile. “You’ll see soon enough” Mikoto said after washing her mouth out in the sink. At this though Kushina broke out into a sob._

_Quickly engulfing her friend in a hug, Mikoto tried to think of what she did wrong backtracking furiously she began rambling, “Don’t worry, you may not even get morning sickness. It’s not like it’s for sure”. At this the sobbing became louder and the grip on her shoulders tightened. Mikoto could think of nothing to do as her friend broke down, it hurt her to see Kushina like this. Kushina was strong, she was indomitable, she was the one who usually did the breaking and yet for some reason her friend couldn’t stop crying. So Mikoto did the only thing she could… she held her, she brushed her fingers through her hair, switched between shushing her cries and whispering reassurances into her ear. Telling her, “She wasn’t alone. That everything will be alright”. They sat like that for over half an hour, as the Hokage’s wife cried out all the frustrations and fears, she wasn’t allowed to show in public, on the bathroom floor in one her best friend’s home._

_Carefully Mikoto extracted Kushina from her arms, and then began to delicately press one of the bathroom’s towels to her friend’s face clearing away her snot and tear tracts. In the most delicate voice Mikoto ever used before with Kushina, she hesitantly asked, “Kushina what’s wrong?” Kushina locked eyes with Mikoto for the first time since she started crying, and Mikoto was about to take it back say she didn’t mean to pry because as she looked at Kushina’s watery green eyes she thought she might break all over again. However, Kushina spoke before either could think better of it, “Minato and I can’t have children”. It felt horrible to say aloud like the mere act of speaking it made it more real, but at the same time it felt good in a way to say it she realized to confess what she had been going through to her friend. So, she kept speaking._

_Mikoto held her hand as Kushina continued to talk, explaining what she had been going through and how much it hurt to want kids with the man she loved but knowing that it would never be possible due to Minato’s condition. Mikoto gave all the support she could, wiping tears away as they fell and giving her hand a reassuring squeeze whenever Kushina’s voice began to waiver. She felt truly sorry for her friend, under normal circumstances they could simply go to a sperm bank, however, they couldn’t. As Hokage, Minato’s son would be expected to become a ninja or at least have some aptitude towards it, thus a donor with a strong chakra network would be ideal but if it were to become public knowledge somehow that he chose one ninja donor over another then the clans would take offense. Oppositely, if they chose a civilian donor and the child proved to be a particularly weak ninja not only would Minato lose face but the village as a whole would as the Hokage’s son reflects on them all. As Mikoto waved Kushina off promising to keep her secret and to stay in touch, she tried to think of a solution._

_It came to her later that night, and it was risky especially considering she was an Uchiha but she came up with a plan. It took two weeks to convince Fugaku and another week for the Namikazes. It was actually Jiraiya of the Sannin that convinced them to go along with it and when Minato named him the godfather, his smile was brighter than the sun. Her husband became the donor, there would be no paper trail nothing that could prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. If by chance the child activated the sharingan then Minato or Kushina would claim they had a distant Uchiha relative._

* * *

            Deep in thought the Third Hokage, nodded to Fugaku as the story came to the end, “I guess that explains your support”. Fugaku face set with a look of determination replied, “He may not have my name but he has my blood and I’ll be damned if he grows up in an orphanage”. “You could have adopted him” the Third said. “Do you really think the clans would let the Uchiha steal away with nine-tails jinchuuriki?” he asked back scowling. The Third replied immediately not even requiring a moment to ponder, knowing the answer was definite, “I see your point”.

            “Why tell me though?” Hiruzen asked. “Because Minato and Kushina’s lineage records have now been sealed for the historical record as per shinobi regulation. If Naruto one day activates his sharingan then we’ll need someone to redact those records…” Mikoto spoke firmly, not willing to give an inch. Hiruzen nodded his head in understanding, although his face contorted slightly at the fact that the boy would never get the truth.

            “What’s wrong sensei?” Jiraiya asked from the windowsill, no one having noticed his arrival. He too wore the traditional black mourning clothes of the leaf. “Jiraiya” Mikoto began threateningly but was cut off by the Toad Sage. “Don’t worry I left the silencing seals intact no one is going to hear” as he said that he climbed through the window and stood next to his old sensei. “Again, I ask what’s wrong sensei?” he said placing a hand on his shoulder.    

            “It’s just… he’ll be lied to his whole life” the Third admitted. “That’s why I have this” Jiraiya said revealing a letter with ‘Naruto’ neatly scrawled on the front of it in Minato’s handwriting. “It’s a letter explaining everything, Minato wanted Naruto to get it either when he turned sixteen or made chunin” Jiraiya explained. Everyone looked shocked as they stared at the letter. Fugaku was the first to recover and ask, “Where did you get that?” “Mt. Myoboku. Minato left it there in case something happened to him, he told me that I was supposed to give it to the acting Hokage” he said, dropping it onto Hiruzen’s desk. “The plan always was to tell him when he got older” he continued, leaning back against one of the office’s walls.  They all took several minutes to ponder this new information, but ultimately if it was what Minato and Kushina wanted they would respect it.

“The seals for the Namikaze estate, will they work for him?” the Third asked suddenly, knowing certain rooms within Minato’s house were locked with blood seals. “Yes, Jiraiya was the one who pointed that out first, the seals were redone with Kushina’s blood also acting as a key so Naruto should be fine” Mikoto replied. “Naruto will be fine, I checked those myself” Jiraiya stated indignantly, clearly defensive of his work.

            “Will you stay and live with the boy?” Fugaku asked looking directly at Jiraiya. “Can’t I need to keep my intelligence network going” He responded, a sad look in his eye. “It’s the best way you can help him Jiraiya” Hiruzen assured the man.

            They sat in that room long into the afternoon and into the evening, discussing every aspect of Naruto’s future. The Uchiha would protect him from any physical threat in the village and they would later be supplemented with Hiruzen’s ANBU if the need arose. Jiraiya had already set up finances for the kid, he had started it as soon as he was named godfather, diverting a portion of his Icha Icha series profits. Additionally, Hiruzen was ensuring that all the property and investments the Namikaze had were handled properly. By the time the meeting was over, all four believed that Naruto Namikaze was set up for a whatever life was going to throw at him.

           They should have known better.


	2. Early Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a bit more telling than it is showing, sorry about that. I'm just trying to speed along to the point were Team 7 gets assembled because that's when the real fun starts.

            “I still don’t like this” Mikoto mumbled under her breath to Fugaku as they both walked onto the enclosed training grounds on the Namikaze estate. “I know, but the Hyuga Affair proved that Naruto needs to be ready. The sooner we start training him the better” Fugaku replied. Over the past four years the Uchihas had all come to care for the Namikaze boy, he often shared meals in their home or they would bring food to his. The Uchiha protection for the boy had proved more than adequate so far. Perhaps even too enthusiastic, much to the Hokage’s chagrin, as they had arrested several shop owners who had either refused to serve Naruto or forcibly removed him from their establishment. Their protection did prove necessary though on three separate occasions when ninjas came for the boy, they were all earth style users but without their hitai-ates or mission orders Hiruzen lacked the evidence to formally pressure Onoki into stopping. Oddly enough most Konoha residents actually began to treat the boy better after the assassination attempts, perhaps the incidents reminded them Naruto was Minato’s son… or perhaps seeing the bloody mess the Uchiha made of the Stone shinobi had something to do with it.

            Today however was the first day of Naruto’s formal ninja training. The Uchiha and Hiruzen had been hoping to postpone it a little longer but after Kumo attempted to kidnap Hinata Hyuga, Danzo was able to convince the village elders along with several council members in the necessity of training Naruto early. Hiruzen was still able to mitigate it to a degree assigning the Uchiha as his instructors and giving the boy the weekends off.

            As they came to large courtyard with targets set out along the southern wall and small pond in the North-eastern portion, they saw Naruto dressed in black shorts with a white tee shirt bearing the Uzumaki whirlpool symbol in red on the upper chest. His hair was the same blonde as his father thanks to Jiraiya, the toad sage, designing a seal that cast a constant genjutsu by syphoning of a small portion of charka of the boy’s large chakra reserves and his eyes the same shade of blue to the bafflement of all who knew his true lineage. He had strapped on his new kunai holster to his right leg and the shuriken pouch was fastened to his right hip, they were birthday gifts he received yesterday after turning four. The party was a large success with every clan in attendance, though the few Hyuga that showed up seemed even more reserved than usual, likely disparaged by the fact they were surrounded by Uchiha.

            “Come on guys let’s get to training already” a young Naruto whined at his Uchiha protectors. Fugaku shared a smile with Mikoto before they began the basic taijutsu lessons they had planned. Naruto was all too eager to learn the katas and took to them as a fish does to water. After several hours of train under the sun, Mikoto finally thought Naruto was starting to tire. “Alright Naruto, you ready for target practice?” Mikoto asked with an amused lilt to her tone, suspecting the boy to complain. Instead she was surprised to see a determined look cross his features as he simply nodded his head. He struggled for several moments trying to get his arm to cooperate, before Fugaku took pity on the boy. “Perhaps a small break, I’m rather hungry” Fugaku said, Mikoto having the same idea immediately agreed.

            After several rice balls and many cups of water, Naruto was looking better and was eager to begin his next lesson and so they worked until the sun went down. “Thank you for the lesson” Naruto told them as they were preparing to leave. The Uchiha parents shared a look before Mikoto began speaking, “Naruto, sweetie, you know we won’t be able to train you ever day, right? We are both very busy so you’ll like have a different instructor tomorrow.” Naruto although saddened nodded his head in acceptance of the fact, his voice somewhat dejected saying “I understand”. Sharing another look both parents nodded to each as Mikoto leaned down to hug Naruto, whispering “Remember you’ll always be welcome in our home”. At this the little blonde boy beamed up a happy smile before bidding them goodbye.

* * *

            Several months passed in which Naruto gained a decent grasp of basic academy taijutsu as well as being taught the basics of the Uchiha Clan’s Intercepting Fist style. His aimed improved as well the boy graduating from practice weapons to very real and very sharp projectiles in just over three months. He was also taught the basics of chakra, learning how to use the Substitution Jutsu as well as the Body Flicker Jutsu. He still expelled entirely too much chakra for the simple techniques often using five times the amount necessary but thanks to his large Uzumaki reserves as well as housing the Kyuubi he rarely felt fatigued after a day’s worth of training. It was around this time that several clans began voicing their displeasure of the Uchihas being the sole trainers to Naruto.

            Most clan leaders weren’t suspicious per say, in fact many had come to rather respect the Uchihas for protecting Naruto the way they had. No, the problem was the boy was actually too well liked. He had made friends with nearly all the clan heads’ children maintaining a friendly rivalry with Kiba Inuzuka as well as taking up Shikamaru Nara’s cloud watching habit. The only clan that actually believed treachery from the Uchiha was the Hyuga, Hiashi had been careful to keep his daughter away from Naruto. Thus, the Hokage began to distribute his tutors more equally, there were so many volunteers that boy rarely had the same instructor twice a month.       

            It was on one of these occasions a silver haired jonin in an ANBU mask decided to help Naruto out with his clone jutsu. He had given Naruto the list of hand signs to go over. “Alright Naruto watch me” he said, standing in the exterior training grounds, in full view of the Uchiha compound, and demonstrating the Shadow Clone Jutsu. “Now you” the jonin said, confident that the boy would have enough chakra for the jutsu all things considered. He watched to boy go through the hand signs, carefully looking at for any mistakes. What the jonin had not suspected was for the jutsu to work as well as it did. “What have I done?!” he said eyes going wide as over two hundred Narutos spawned. The jonin had attempted to get the boy to dispel them as quickly as possible but unfortunately several bystanders noticed the display and informed the Hokage. The Hokage in return assigned the jonin several weeks’ worth of paperwork for teaching Naruto a forbidden jutsu.

* * *

            “Naruto do you know what this is?” Hiruzen asked, kneeling down in front of the boy and holding out a slip of paper. The six-year-old looked closely at the paper before nodding his head no. “It’s chakra paper” Hiruzen replied, “it’ll tell us your chakra affinity”. He handed the excited boy the paper and instructed him to channel a bit of his chakra into it. Although young the boy had already learned what he would need for the academy and then some. Thus, Hiruzen had thought it’d be good to start him on some elemental style jutsu. He was surprised when he saw the chakra split into two pieces. ‘Just like Asuma” Hiruzen thought briefly, before becoming more surprised as the tips of the paper began to burn and the middle portion crinkled. ‘Three affinities very impressive…I wonder if the Fox has some part in this’ Hiruzen idly pondered to himself. “Alright Naruto I’ll find you some instructors” he said with a smile. “Oh man, but I wanted to start now” Naruto replied petulantly, still a child despite his skills.

            Later that night Hiruzen was having trouble finding Naruto the proper instructor. Finding an instructor for fire nature had been easy since the Uchiha clan had already said if the boy proved to have fire nature they would happily do it. The lighting instructor was also easy as Kakashi Hatake jumped at the chance to help train his sensei’s son, and after promising not to allow another shadow clone debacle to happen Hiruzen was happy to give him the job. Sadly, wind nature was rare in Konoha seeing as only two ninjas reportedly had it Asuma Saurtobi, who was currently serving as a member of the Guardian Twelve, and Danzo Shimura. However, seeing as how wind was Naruto’s main affinity Hiruzen had no choice but to pair him up with Danzo and hope for the best.

            Kakashi trained him first, showing him basic lighting jutsu and creating earthen jutsu structures for him to destroy. Naruto gained a decent grasp on lighting jutsu after only two months. Then Fugaku got his turn to train him next, using the opportunity to train Sasuke as well. Naruto got it first after two weeks of trying, the blonde then aided his friend helping him learn it too within the next week. Fugaku was so proud of his boys, even though he respected the Fourth Hokage’s wishes he did in fact regard Naruto like son especially when he did something well.

            It was around this time that Itachi began to put the pieces together. Confronting his father one night he simply asked, “Naruto’s my brother, isn’t he?” Fugaku although surprised that Itachi pieced everything together admitted to it, in response Itachi swore on the family honor that he would never tell another living soul. Itachi then taught both his little brothers a few fire jutsu but his ANBU missions kept him busy and thus at a little over six and half years old Naruto’s instructor became Danzo Shimura.    

            Danzo took his job seriously teaching Naruto the principles of wind chakra. In a week he was cutting leaves with nothing but his chakra and in a month he had learned nearly as many wind jutsu as lightning or fire. It was on one of these days that Danzo impressed upon Naruto what he believed to be the most important lessons a shinobi should learn.

* * *

            “Begin” Danzo said from his seat, in the shade of the overhang. He, Naruto and two members of ROOT all stood in enclosed training grounds of the Namikaze compound. The ROOT member drew his tanto out and charged Naruto. Naruto quickly performed the Vacuum Blade Jutsu, Danzo had taught him, giving the kunai in his right hand and ethereal green color as wind chakra acted as an extended blade. He then countered the tanto bearing shinobi toe-to-toe. The ANBU masked individual was obviously holding back but nevertheless Naruto was performing admirably for his age. Then Danzo signaled for the second ROOT operative to enter the fray. He did so with a flurry of shuriken throwing them expertly at Naruto’s abdomen. Just before they hit Naruto performed the Substitution Jutsu, being replaced by a log.

             “That’s no fair” Naruto said, glaring at Danzo. “There is no such thing as fair in the shinobi world” Danzo replied, gritting his teeth a little at the child’s naivety. Naruto in turn looked back to both his opponents trying to think of a solution ‘if I use a combination of fire and wind jutsu then I could probably win… then again if I burn the house down Jiji won’t be happy with me’. Grimacing Naruto began evading the constant sword strikes and persistent aim of the ROOT operatives. Until finally deciding to use that technique the Third Hokage had told him not to, ‘Sorry Jiji but I can’t see a good way out of this’. Jumping back as far as he could from his opponents Naruto created several dozen shadow clones.

            Danzo smiled as he watched the blonde jinchuuriki dash forward blending into the crowd of his kunai wielding clones. It took several minutes and multiple waves of shadow clones but Naruto had managed to force the operatives’ backs against the wall. It was as he and his clones held several kunai to the ANBUs’ vital areas that Danzo began to clap. “Very good, Naruto” he said as he approached. “But you forgot one important thing” Danzo continued now standing directly in front of the blonde. Naruto looked quizzically at the man before asking, “What?” Danzo took one more step forward, before saying, “Always…Always go for the kill”. As he said this the ROOT ANBU with the tanto performed the substitution with Danzo and cut diagonally across Naruto’s chest drawing a deep gash across his body.

            Naruto remained vaguely aware of his body and senses as his body fell backwards to the ground. He heard his clones dispelling just as he felt the warm blood seep out of his chest staining his clothes red, then he felt the ground as he looked up to the sky and his world faded to black.

* * *

           When Naruto awoke it was in a sewer. Confused on how he got there Naruto looked down the concrete hallway, wondering how to get out. It was then he felt a light pulling sensation, he couldn’t name exactly what was pulling him but he walked through the concrete halls like a man possessed. He came to a stop in a large room, in front of him stood the largest gate he had ever seen, in the middle of the gate there was a tag with the kanji for seal written on it. Walking forward Naruto was startled when bright red eyes stared back at him, a malicious grin spreading over the specter’s face. “W-who are y-you?” Naruto managed to stammer out. The beast cackled loudly before replying, “Come closer and I’ll tell you”. Naruto however remained rooted in place. Several moments passed before the beast roared, “You’d dare defy me! I said come closer”. Still Naruto remained rooted in place. The beast huffed once before replying, “You’re smarter than you look” it then let chakra flow throughout its body helping to light its cage so that all nine-tails were visible. “I’m the Kyuubi the strongest of all the Bijuu” the fox said as simply as someone reciting a fact. Before Naruto could ask any more questions, the fox snorted and grumbled, “Don’t bother me again till your more interesting”. And with that Naruto was cast out his vision going white for a second before he came to. 

* * *

            Looking up Naruto saw Danzo and the two ROOT operatives standing over him. “What was that?” he asked still a little out of it. Danzo smiled pointing to his chest with his cane saying, “That would be the Kyuubi healing you Naruto, you’re a jinchuuriki a container for the demon”. “WHAT?!?!” Naruto yelled sitting up immediately. “Naruto calm down” Danzo said placing a placating hand on his shoulder with a firm grip. “Why me?” Naruto asked, still hysterical. “Your father, the Fourth Hokage, did it to protect the village” Danzo explained. Carefully Danzo continued not wanting to waste his chance to weaponize the jinchuuriki, “He entrusted you to keep the demon at bay… and to use the great power he entrusted you with for the betterment of the Leaf”. Naruto looked up questioningly at the man, so he continued, “Naruto the Fox’s power is yours as well, which makes you a very special ninja”. Danzo watched the small smile play across the boy’s lips and knew he had him exactly where he wanted him. “You do want to protect the Leaf right, to become Hokage?” he questioned already knowing the answer, the boy’s desire to one day become Hokage, like his father, was known to all in Konoha. “Yes” Naruto answered anyway, his voice tentative but intrigued. “Only very powerful ninja can become Hokage… and by learning to control the Kyuubi’s power you could become very strong indeed” Danzo finished, and watched as Naruto not only accepted the idea but was excited by it.

            However, a cautious expression crossed his face as Naruto ran his hand across where the tanto cut, even though the wound closed the shirt was still cut and bloodied. “You tried to kill me” Naruto said, voice wavering with part fear and part indignation. “I knew the fox would heal you and I believed it was a necessary action for you to learn your lesson” Danzo said evenly. “That I’m a jinchuuriki?” Naruto questioned. Danzo resisted the desire to roll his eyes signaling the ROOT operative to give Naruto a reminder. Quickly the tanto was drawn across the blonde’s shoulder. Naruto yelped in pain for second before his chin was roughly grasped by Danzo, who forced Naruto to look him in the eyes as he carefully enunciated each word, “Always. Go. For. The. Kill.” Naruto nodded once showing he understood, before Danzo released him. Danzo quickly took the boy’s shirt burning the evidence of his unorthodox training methods and saying he’d replace it. He also warned Naruto that he was the only one who was willing to train him in mastering the Kyuubi’s power and that they needed to keep his training a secret. The next day Naruto walked into Hiruzen’s office and asked that Danzo be allowed to train him for the foreseeable future, claiming that he wanted to learn as many wind jutsu as possible. Although he had his reservations the Third agreed figuring Danzo would do a good job teaching Naruto considering teaching him wind jutsu was the closest he’d ever get to having the boy in ROOT.

* * *

            It was several months later just three weeks after Naruto turned seven that Mikoto came to the compound to find the boy in the courtyard moving in a face-paced taijutsu spar with three of Danzo’s men. She had wanted to see him for the check up on him, considering he hadn’t come over for dinner in the past couple of weeks. When he came to a stop Naruto’s back was to her. Mikoto was about to call out asking if he would like a break and that she brought dango over, however, she stopped herself when she felt a familiar malicious chakra. Her legs stiffened slightly, and her heart rate picked up as Naruto’s nails grew into claws. Then he took off slashing one man across the chest drawing blood, knocking another into the far wall with a single punch, before ringing the last one by the throat and choking him unconscious. It was as he began to turn that Mikoto thought to activate her sharingan in case she needed to combat the boy, and she regretted it. She saw his face in perfect detail that the boy’s normally sweet blue eyes were blood red with slit pupils, his teeth were shaper, his whisker marks were darker and angrier making him look feral.

            However, as Naruto saw her his eyes began to change, his claws retracted, and everything that was scary about him a second ago rescinded even the evil chakra. But thanks to her sharingan Mikoto could still see the image of Naruto, her Naruto, who she had watched take his first steps, who she taught how to swim, as a feral animal. So, she did the only thing he mind would let her do at the moment… she ran and she kept running even when she heard Naruto calling out to her. She had made it to the front entrance, her hand on the door when she heard him sob, “Wait”. And despite what all her instincts were telling her to do she did, she waited, and she could sense him as he took several fearful steps forward. Still he kept several feet of distance between them, scared that if he got too close she start running again.

            “I wanted to tell you… I really did” he said, his voice soft and full of fear. “I want to become strong you know? To be Hokage, to protect everyone, I don’t want you to be angry with me…I--”, Naruto’s rambling was cut off as Mikoto spun around and quickly wrapped the boy in a hug, unable to stand his tearful voice any longer. “I’m not angry with you, Naruto” Mikoto said soothingly running her hand through his blonde locks. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry” he kept on saying as he cried against her shoulder. She held him as she had held his mother years ago as the boy cried against her.

            Later that day Mikoto brought Naruto to the Hokage’s office and convinced him to tell the Third everything that had been going on. The Third responded by calling Fugaku and some of his best ANBU. He ordered them to bring Danzo in, Fugaku cast one quick glance at his wife and Naruto before he left and what he saw made him call in every available Uchiha. Danzo had done something to the people he cared about and now he was going to pay.

            Less than an hour later Danzo was brought in by several members of Konoha’s Military Police Force, the Uchihas were less than delicate as they manhandled Danzo into a seat in front of the Hokage. If Danzo’s restraints were tied a little tighter around his wrists than strictly necessary no one mentioned it. Hiruzen looked across his desk at his former teammate, “Care to explain why you’re training Naruto in using the Nine-tails’ chakra?” Danzo smiled and replied simply, “He asked”. “You manipulated him” Mikoto yelled from her seat further back in the room her left hand clasped around Naruto’s right, afraid to even let him go in the presence of this man. “I am a shinobi” Danzo said, like that explained everything.

           “I ordered him not to be trained as a weapon” Hiruzen spoke his tone harsh and unyielding. “You also ordered me to train him” Danzo replied, “He is a jinchuuriki whether you want to accept that fact or not, it still remains true. He’ll need to know how to draw on its power one day”. “He’s a child!” yelled Fugaku as he stormed closer towards Danzo, only to be stopped with a look from Hiruzen. “The sooner he learns to control it the better it is for everyone” Danzo responded still calm under the Uchiha’s furious gaze. “That may be true…nevertheless, I believe I’ve given you too much leeway for far too long, Danzo” Hiruzen said, his tone steady even if there was a bite to it. “As such, the organization known as ROOT will be disbanded immediately its operatives will integrate and assimilate into Konoha’s regular ninja forces. And you Danzo will receive an honorable mandatory discharge and will retire from any and all ninja related business”.

           Danzo for the first time in that meeting looked flustered, “You can’t do this. I keep the Leaf safe. My men do what needs to be done, just as I have always done in service to Konoha”. “Perhaps you misunderstood that was not a request” Hiruzen’s voice was steel and Danzo understood just how serious his old teammate was. Realizing he was also surround by military police that would love to throw him in jail, Danzo rose slowly, gave a deep bow, and said, “As you command Hokage”. With a nod from Hiruzen Danzo’s binds were cut and he was free to leave.

* * *

            After Danzo was gone, Hiruzen turned to Naruto and explained in no uncertain terms that he was to never access the Fox’s chakra, at least no until he was older. Truthfully Hiruzen knew that Naruto would one day need that power but without Jiraiya nearby to keep an eye on the seal he was worried Naruto might break it accidentally. Once the group was sure Naruto understood, they sent him home with a few military police escorts. Hiruzen, Mikoto, and Fugaku remained in the office.

            “So, what do you think we should do about him?” Hiruzen asked them both, ever since Naruto’s birth the Third and the Uchiha clan had become close allies. Fugaku sat down heavily in the chair Danzo had previously occupied and let out a heavy sigh. Looking at her husband Mikoto gave his should tight squeeze in support knowing he felt rather overwhelmed by the situation. “He’s constantly been training for three years, even training on his own free time” Fugaku started, “perhaps it’s time we give him a break”.

             Hiruzen looked to Mikoto, she was nodding her head agreeing with her husband, and he couldn’t help but agree with them. So, they discussed it for several minutes going over every aspect from how Naruto was still in danger and need to get stronger to how Naruto would complain if he had nothing to do. Finally, they came to a decision. “So, Naruto will be allowed two training sessions a week for him to improve his ninjutsu, taijutsu, and his genjutsu. The other three days will go to learning history, clan politics, and other useful information. Those days will be called ‘Hokage training’. The weekends will remain his but you two will schedule as many social outings as you can. Then he will be enrolled into the academy on his eighth birthday so that he may round out his basic skills” Hiruzen said triumphantly, the ‘Hokage training’ thing was his idea and by calling it that the boy was sure to accept this new deal. With a nod, the two Uchiha agreed to the plan and were dismissed from the Hokage’s office after such a trying day.

* * *

            It had been about a month since Danzo’s ousting. The ninja council accepted it easily enough, the elders, Koharu and Homura, weren’t happy. They had been prepared to lobby for his return when Hiruzen explained some of the training methods he learned Danzo had used with Naruto, after he was done talking they knew it was a lost cause. Too many of the clan heads liked the boy and after they heard some of Danzo more violent methods they were quite angry that the man hadn’t been charged with something.   

            Naruto’s life got easier, gone were the instructors who would happily draw blood in the hopes of making him learn faster. Instead he was being trained by careful ANBU skilled enough to pull back their attacks before he’d sustain any real damage. However sometimes when he was bored out of his mind in his Hokage training classes he’d wish Danzo was still training him.

             Currently he was standing in the Namikaze courtyard, his favorite training grounds, relaxing with shuriken practice in the cool night air. He was slightly frustrated with the fact the Hokage had decided to tone down his physical training but on the other hand he was happy he wasn’t in too much trouble for letting Danzo trick him. Mid-throw Naruto felt a presence behind him, as the shuriken left his hand he turned around knowing it would find its mark. He was greeted by a porcelain ANBU mask, that lacked any markings whatsoever. Thinking it strange considering he’d never seen it before he went to ask who the figure was, but before he could the ANBU threw several shuriken straight at Naruto’s chest.

             Before Naruto could even ask what the hell the guy was thinking or call for help, the figure was upon him again slashing at him with a kunai in both hands. Naruto pulled out his own kunai, evading and deflecting as best he could but still received several cuts along his arms. He jumped back away from the figure as far as he could before performing the Shadow Clone Jutsu, two dozen Narutos now occupied the courtyard. All but one pulled out their own kunai and performed the Vacuum Blade Jutsu, the ones holding the wind-enhanced kunai quickly circled the figure. The one without a kunai jumped onto the roof of the Namikaze estate and began running to get help from the Uchiha. The figure, who had remained impassive while being surrounded flung one kunai at the fleeing Naruto, hitting him in the throat. The clone dispersed in a puff of smoke and the remaining Narutos including the original tensed at the man’s skill. Quickly they all darted forward simultaneously the figure spoke then, “Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation”. The figure then spun incredibly fast releasing a large amount of chakra and performing the Hyuga clan’s greatest defensive jutsu.

            All of Naruto’s clones were dispelled in an instant and the originally was knocked onto his back. Before he could get his proper bearing the masked Hyuga assassin darted forward and began relentless slashing at Naruto. Naruto desperate prepared to draw on the Fox’s chakra, seeing this the Hyuga slapped a special seal to his chest. Naruto’s breath was knocked out of him as his connection to the Fox was abruptly cut off. He didn’t have time to think about it though as the man kept slashing at him. He seemed to be getting faster as the fight went on his kunai catching Naruto just a little bit more each time. Naruto didn’t know what to do, this man was faster than him, obviously wanted to kill him, and Naruto had no recourse ever time he pulled a kunai the figure would disarm him in an instant.

            Naruto thought he was going to die.

            Then it happened it was like he could see for the first time; the man’s moves seemingly slowed and he saw his opening. Drawing his kunai Naruto dragged it across the front of the man’s throat in one quick motion. There Naruto stood, blood sprayed across his face and blood in his hair, his eyes a blood red with two tomes of his sharingan being awakened.

* * *

            Atop the Namikaze roof hiding in the shadows, Danzo felt a smirk cross his face, sure it cost him his only Hyuga ROOT operative but it was worth it. If he used this information correctly he could strong-arm his way back on the council and make Hiruzen officially reestablish ROOT. His operatives of course had remained loyal to him even after the Hokage had separated and distributed them throughout Konoha’s forces. Then perhaps he could get his hand on a sharingan wielding jinchuuriki the possibilities for such a ninja were endless. As he turned to leave he was met by the three sets of sharingan eyes. “Danzo” Fugaku growled, hand mirroring Mikoto and Itachi’s movements as they all went for a kunai. They had come to bring Naruto dinner, when they found the bodies of several Uchiha guards. Alarmed they had sent Sasuke to get help from their clansmen and inform the Third Hokage, before rushing to find Naruto.

            Danzo turned to each of them calmly, saying “I suppose I know now why the head of the Uchiha clan responded so emotionally in the office that day and why you’ve supported that boy so much”. Itachi cast a quick glance to his little brother seeing he was safe if stunned standing over the body of his attacker. “Does the boy know?” Danzo asked, a smile growing on his face at the looks on their faces telling him everything he needed to know. “Perhaps I should go and tell him” Danzo continued. “Danzo for your crimes against the Leaf, the Uchiha clan, and the Namikaze heir you will die” Fugaku spoke with finality. Danzo’s own smile grew slightly before his hands flashed through only a few hand signs and he began shooting out bullets of compressed air that ripped up the roof as they traveled towards the Uchiha. They jumped off into the courtyard below. Before they could recover he was already throwing several wind-enhanced shuriken before performing the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu turning a dozen shuriken to over a hundred. Those numbers were hard to dodge even for a sharingan user. Fugaku received the worst of it catching one in his right shoulder and another slashing the same side of his stomach. Mikoto had a deep gash along her left thigh and Itachi gained one across his cheek. All of them were also sporting much smaller nonlethal cuts across their body.

            Danzo then jumped to the ground as well, thanks to their enhanced eyes the Uchiha saw the first few hands signs and could guess that Danzo was about to perform some sort of earth style jutsu. They in turn began quickly flashing through signs to burn the wind user with a combined fire jutsu. None of them expected the wind-enhanced kunai to piece through Danzo’s heart. With what little strength he had left, Danzo turned his head slightly and saw the blonde boy standing their hand clasped firmly around the hilt. ‘He went for the kill’ Danzo thought briefly before he breathed his last. As his body fell Naruto’s kunai slipped out of his hands, and the boy stood there sharingan eyes still deactivating as he stared at his bloodied hands.

            It was onto this scene that the Hokage arrived with an ANBU squad at his back and half of the Konoha Military Police Force soon followed. Not one of them knew what to do as the little blonde boy stood there in the courtyard with the two bodies of the men he just killed. Everyone knowing the first kill was the hardest and this boy despite being trained to fight wasn’t ready for it. Add that to the fact that not only had he done it twice now but that the corpses he made belonged to Leaf shinobi, making them former allies whether they were traitors or not, and that made this situation even worse. Everyone wanted to help but no one knew what to say to the boy, so silence reigned.

            That is till one member of the crowd stepped forward, “Naruto…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm thinking maybe only one more chapter after this till I skip along to Team 7 so that should be fun. Anyway hope you enjoyed :-). Constructive criticism is welcome... other criticisms will probably be tolerated too since I'll probably be happy just to get a comment.


	3. Itachi Uchiha

            “Naruto” Itachi repeated, as he carefully approached the blonde boy with his hands placatingly outstretched. When he was with arms reach he gently placed his hands on both his shoulders, “Naruto, why don’t you come with me. I’ll get you cleaned up”. Naruto gave no indication that he heard Itachi but he also gave no resistance as the Uchiha began to gently guide him into the house. A few quick hand signals from Itachi let everyone know he wanted them to clear out. Although hesitant at first when the Hokage told them to do as he said, everyone dispersed.

            Inside the house Itachi guided Naruto to the nearest bathroom. He turned the shower on and checked the temperature three times to make sure it was hot enough, before he guided a fully clothed Naruto into it. He pulled the tag, the one that had suppressed the Kyuubi’s chakra, from Naruto’s shirt tucking it away in his pants pocket. Then he turned back towards the door, seeing his parents and Third Hokage there ready to do whatever they needed to. “Mother he’ll need food, nothing fancy, rice and water will do. Father get him dry clothes” Itachi said, honestly he was unsure of how to deal with the situation, a rare predicament for him, but he needed to help his brother. Hiruzen still stood there in the doorway and Itachi quickly explained what he could of the situation with Danzo, giving him the tag to analyze.

            Several minutes later both Mikoto and Fugaku came back. Naruto remained in the shower, although the blood had been entirely washed away, he stood as still as a statue. “You should go I’ll handle this” Itachi told the other three. Each of them had reservations about leaving the boy, but this incident would cause problems that needed to be taken care of and they needed to form a plan. Not wanting to be far from the boy just in case, Mikoto said, “We’ll be at home. Come get us if you need help”. Itachi nodded and with that the others left.

            The three of them quickly moved back to the Uchiha district, heading straight for Fugaku’s house. Once inside Mikoto went to go check on Sasuke and put him to bed. The little boy however was terribly worried about his best friend and Mikoto was forced to using a sleeping jutsu on him. Walking back into the living room she saw Fugaku had already put down silencing seals. Starting with the hardest thing first, Fugaku spoke “Naruto activated his sharingan”. Hiruzen looked startled at this before nodding his head, “I’ll redact the records as soon as --”.

            “I’m not sure that’ll be necessary” Mikoto interrupted. She took the quizzical look the Hokage gave as her queue to continue, “He unlocked it in the heat of the moment…It’s possible he doesn’t even know he did it, in fact it is unlikely. We should wait, if he knows and starts to ask questions then we should but no one else could have seen him activate his bloodline. Redacting the records now may be unnecessary and could draw unnecessary attention”. As she spoke her tone became firmer and more confident, her hands steadying as the adrenaline of the fight wore off.

            Hiruzen and Fugaku shared a look for a minute before they both nodded their heads. “Very well” Hiruzen said, “what do we tell people about the incident though?” A dead Hyuga, several dead Uchiha, a botched assassination, and the death of a former council member were likely to cause quite a stir in Konoha; they had to know what story they had to determine tonight what story they’d present before things got a chance to spiral out of control. They argued over several different scenarios but eventually agreed that there were too many eye witnesses to the immediate aftermath to stray too far from the truth. So they would tell the truth, excluding Naruto having the sharingan, to only those who needed to know and suppress the story as much as possible so other ninja villages wouldn’t think them weak.

* * *

            Itachi stood in the bathroom with Naruto for the better part of the hour, waiting for the boy to show some sign of life. It was odd how he was almost thankful when Naruto suddenly lunged towards the toilet and emptied his stomach, because at least that showed someone was still in there. After several minutes of Naruto splitting his time between sobbing his eyes out and puking his guts up, the blonde finally sat back resting his back against the wall. His clothes were still soaking wet from the shower and small puddle was forming around him, but Itachi didn’t want to move him just yet. Instead he leaned over the boy and flushed the toilet, then he stopped the shower the water having gone cold a while ago. Looking back at the boy Itachi received nothing but a blank stare.

            Wanting Naruto to actually want his help instead of simply allowing it Itachi closed the door and sat down with his back against it, his coal eyes watching Naruto’s blue carefully. It was hard for Itachi to know how long it took, it could have been minutes or it could have been hours, all he did know was that when Naruto’s eyes focused on him for the first time he felt a flooding sense of relief. Still he kept his face coolly impassive and held his hands calmly in his lap waiting on Naruto’s signal. The blonde sat there simply watching Itachi, before his eyes briefly glanced over at the food. Itachi noticing slowly gathered the bowl and glass handing them over. Naruto ate slowly, the impatient and overly exuberant boy for once not simply inhaling his food like usual. When he was done with them Itachi carefully came closer to gather them up and place them back on bathroom counter.

            Then Itachi sat down again and waited for Naruto to want something again. The second wait wasn’t nearly as long as the first as Naruto began to fidget in his damp clothes. Itachi in turn got up gestured to the clothes and towel on the counter, simply saying, “Here”. Naruto looked between him and the clothes for a minute before nodding his head, the blonde got up slowly keeping a steady hand on the wall for support. Itachi was about to head out the door when he hesitated for a moment, remembering Naruto still had his kunai and shuriken on him. He didn’t want his brother to try something stupid, but he also knew that asking for them may not be the best thing right now. He analyzed the situation as best he could as fast he could, a few seconds later walking out the door and shutting it lightly behind him. He had remembered what he learned of Danzo’s training methods and how the Kyuubi’s chakra would heal Naruto if he was hurt, he hoped that would save him if he decided to do something terrible. He also wanted believed the strong-willed Naruto he knew wouldn’t try something like that. Was it a gamble? Yes, but Itachi needed to have faith in his littlest brother. So, there he stood right by the door channeling chakra to his ears and nose hoping not to pick up any worrying information.

            When Naruto came out he was dressed in orange pajamas, he glanced briefly at Itachi before heading down the hallway. Itachi cast a brief look back into the bathroom happily noticing the kunai holster and shuriken pouch lay with the rest of the wet forgotten clothes. Itachi followed the blonde through the house. When he walked into his bedroom and got into bed Itachi watched from the doorway. He waited there keeping a silent vigil till he heard Naruto’s breath even out as the boy drifted off to sleep. Itachi closed the door carefully ensuring it didn’t make any noise before settling down to meditate in the lotus position, he had been on missions before in ANBU were he couldn’t rest for days and he would happily forsake sleep for a few days in order to be there for Naruto.   

* * *

            Itachi sat outside Naruto’s room for hours waiting for the boy. It was around midday that he felt three familiar chakra presences enter through the front door of the house, coming into the main hall directly below him. When his parents and the Hokage came up the stairs and walked down the hallway to him, he regarded them all with a signal nod of the head. Hiruzen was the first to use hand signals asking, ‘How is he’. ‘Not good but not as bad as he could be’ Itachi signed back. ‘Can we talk?’ his mother silently asked. With a nod of his head Itachi flipped through a series of hand signs causing a shadow clone to poof into existence, he himself was unwilling to move incase Naruto needed him.

            The clone led the small group away, back down the stairs and into the living room, before it started explaining everything that happened last night. After that was done and the three shinobi were still processing the information, the clone turned to Hiruzen asking, “May I be relieved of my ANBU duties?” Hiruzen and his parents wore similar expressions of shock, before the Hokage regained himself and asked, “For how long?” The clone looked to the ground for a moment before looking back up eyes a mixture of shame and need but otherwise his posture wholly impassive, “Till Naruto has recovered a bit…I believe I can help him”. A look of understanding washed over the others faces. Mikoto’s mouth quirking into a small smile. Hiruzen saying, “Take as much time as you need”. Bowing deeply the Itachi clone thanked the Third. When they asked what could they do for the boy, the clone merely replied, “I’ll let you know” before it disappeared in a puff of smoke. 

* * *

            It took another hour after the three left before Itachi heard Naruto first start to stir in his room. ‘Should I go in or wait here’ he thought, ‘I don’t want to be overbearing and push him away. Then again I want him to know I’m here for him’. Itachi’s inner debate was decided for him as the door to Naruto’s bedroom squeaked open. Blue eyes searched Itachi’s face for a moment but if he was surprised or cared that Itachi had stayed he didn’t show it. In fact, it disturbed Itachi to see the young blonde’s face so emotionless. ‘A smile or a scowl… or anything would be better than this’ Itachi thought, he had stared death in the face so many times and yet this sight was the most unnerving of all… it was at this moment he began to dread the day when Sasuke had to killed his first enemy. However, Itachi wouldn’t let anything slip by the carefully constructed mask he built as a shinobi, he knew it wasn’t what Naruto needed at the moment.

            Apparently not finding what he was looking for Naruto simply walked past Itachi down the hallway to one of the second-floor bathrooms. Itachi followed him and Naruto didn’t bother to close the door as he pulled out his toothbrush beginning to scrub his teeth clean. After that, he didn’t even bother to look at Itachi as he passed by him and began heading the downstairs. Itachi followed him, both curious of what he was doing and growing slightly worried that Naruto’s psyche may actually have broken, too much shock permanently damaging the young mind.   

            As Naruto came to a stop in the kitchen, Itachi stopped in at the rooms threshold careful to maintain his posture and face calm. He watched as Naruto began to pull out a bowl from the cupboard and proceeded to make himself a bowl of cereal. The kitchen was silent except the sounds of Naruto munching on his breakfast, as he sat up on the counter opposite Itachi and stared at the man as he ate but never met his eyes. Then when there was nothing left but milk in the bowl Naruto tipped it over a drank its contents, as he brought the bowl back down blue met black. Maintaining eye contact as he placed the bowl into the sink on his left Naruto braced his right hand on the counter gripping the edge. With the soft clatter of the bowl coming to a rest he spoke for the first time since it happened, “How do you do it?”

            The question although simple was difficult to answer, luckily Itachi knew everyone asked this very question as they became a ninja and answered as truthfully as he could, “I remind myself that what I do is in defense of the village and those dear to me”. Naruto nodded his head in understanding, but he began staring at the floor his bottom lip quivering slightly. “Just as you did last night…Naruto you were protecting us” Itachi continued, gesturing to himself and towards the Uchiha district where his parents were. Itachi watched as Naruto visibly gulped and teary blue eyes rose to meet his, it was with a terribly small and sad voice that Itachi was reminded just how young his brother was, as Naruto asked, “And is it enough?”

            Itachi taken back by the question had to stop himself from visibly flinching before replying, “It has to be”. Naruto nodded just once before a single tear slipped down his cheek. Itachi finally seeing his opportunity rushed to his brother in an instant picking him up in a tight bear hug and holding him as he cried. The two remained inside the rest of the day in comfortable silence for the most part, Itachi being a man of few words and Naruto still melancholy but definitely getting better in small increments. So, the two brothers sat with one another, playing games of shogi or cards, one offering silent support as the other replayed the previous night’s events over again in his head.

            That night as Itachi tucked Naruto into bed, the blonde finally asked, “Could it have been avoided?” Itachi looking down at the boy, replied almost immediately, “No. Danzo would have died either way… your actions potentially saved lives, never forget that Naruto”. Itachi watched as the boy’s face displayed a variety of emotions: shame, pride, sadness, happiness, anger and denial all came and went in an instant. He flashed a small smile at his little brother, knowing that he would be all right. As long as Naruto kept feeling then he stood a chance at growing into both a fine young man as well as a fine shinobi. Sooner or later, Naruto would come to accept his actions and Itachi would help him every step of the way.

            As he began walking out the door Naruto asked, “Does it get easier… to kill people I mean”. Itachi paused midstride and was silent long enough for Naruto to think he wasn’t going to answer, when he finally said, “Yes, it shouldn’t but it does”. Naruto didn’t quite know how to feel about that so he simply mumbled, “Goodnight Itachi” and pulled the covers closer to his body. Itachi cast a one-eyed glance back at the boy, saying “Goodnight Naruto” before walking out the room. 

* * *

            “Alright Naruto you can stop molding chakra now” Hiruzen told the boy with a smile on his face, his hands pulling back from the child’s stomach where he had been inspecting the seal. “Come on Jiji, how many times are you going to check it” Naruto complained, over the past five weeks since Danzo’s operative had slapped that seal on him, Hiruzen had inspected the integrity of the Fox’s cage no less than fifteen times. Smiling at the boy the aged Saurtobi acquiesced, “This is the last time… this month”. It wasn’t that Hiruzen was bad with seals, in fact he was rather good at them and after inspecting the tag multiple times he could be fairly certain that Danzo’s tag wouldn’t cause any lasting damage to the seal. Still though without Jiriaya present to give a second opinion and given the fact Naruto was able draw on the Kyuubi’s power he was rather understandably worried about how the seal was holding up.  

            “Naruto come on” Itachi beckoned as he made his way out the door of the Hokage’s office. True to his word Itachi had barely left Naruto’s side in past few weeks, the Hokage taking him off active duty and his mother bringing some of his clothes over to the Namikaze mansion so that he could stay in one of the guest rooms. Sasuke of course was rather jealous of Naruto, for getting to spend so much free time with Itachi. That is until three weeks ago when his parents said he could sleep over at Naruto’s on weekends, on those days the trio was inseparable. In fact, Itachi was happily surprised by Naruto’s first big goofy smile when he heard Sasuke was going to be sleeping over, it was the happiest he seen the boy since the incident.

            Currently Naruto was rushing to catch up to Itachi who was slowly making his way out of the Hokage’s tower. They were on their way to the academy where they would pick up Sasuke, given that it was a Friday, as was their habit after the first sleepover weekend. Itachi and his parents had given into letting Itachi pick Sasuke up after school, but only due to a ridiculous amount of complaining his two younger brothers did about all the wasted time it took Sasuke to get home and drop his stuff off before heading to the Namikaze estate… the boys seemed convinced it took him hours to get from one house, even though they were practically next-door neighbors.

            Itachi and Naruto arrived at the academy a few minutes early. Itachi clad in black pants and a dark blue loose fitting short sleeve shirt with the Uchiha crest stitched on the back. Naruto in white shorts and a light blue short sleeved shirt with Namikaze crest (a dark blue lightning bolt inside a yellow circle) on his back. Itachi cast a quick glance at the boy as they came to a stop under a tree into front of the academy, Naruto had that distant look in his eyes. Although mostly back to normal Itachi had noticed the boy still got quiet and pensive at times, the Uchiha knew he wasn’t completely better yet but he was close to accepting what it meant to be a shinobi, which was for many a hard lesson to learn. Wanting to distract him he asked, “Hey, Naruto, you want to try out the swing?” Almost immediately the gloom disappeared as the boy quickly nodded his head and hopped up on the swing tied to the tree branch.

            It was several more minutes before the doors to the academy opened and the kids rushed out. Some stuck around to talk with friends while others immediately began walking home with their parents. The moment Naruto saw Sasuke he was at the apogee of his swing, jumping from out of his seat he flew a couple feet forward yelling, “SASUKE!!” When he landed he ran up to his best friend, who was also running towards Naruto, and the two hugged liked they hadn’t seen each other in years. ‘It’s been five days…less than actually’ Itachi thought to himself remembering that Sasuke had no homework Tuesday and had instead spent the late afternoon and early evening playing with Naruto in the woods behind the Namikaze property. Regardless Itachi couldn’t prevent his lips curving into an almost smile as he watched his brothers’ antics.

            When Naruto pulled away from the hug he saw a platinum blonde and pink haired girl looking at Sasuke strangely. “What’s up with them” Naruto asked, inclining his head towards the girls. Sasuke turned to look and briefly saw the faces of Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruna. The moment they saw he was looking at them though both girls started turning a nice shade of pink and turned around scuttling away whispering to one another. Sasuke turned back to Naruto, and shrugged saying, “I don’t know. They’ve been like that for a while now mom says I’ll understand when I’m older”. Naruto had a confused look on his face for several seconds before waving his arms up and down petulantly, asking, “But why can’t we know now?” Sasuke again shrugged before walking over to Itachi with Naruto close behind him. “Itachi why were those girls looking at Sasuke like that?” Naruto asked hoping to get an answer.

            Itachi let a brief smile flicker across his face before placing his right hand on Naruto’s shoulder and his left on Sasuke’s, he then leaned in closer like he was telling them a secret. His voice was just above a whisper as he explained, “You’ll understand when you’re older”. This answer merely got Sasuke to roll his eyes and shrug not really caring. Naruto however planted his feet to the ground before half begging half demanding, “Come on, I want to know now!”. Itachi merely smiled ruffing both the boys’ hair as he started walking away, knowing they both would follow.

            The walk back to Namikaze estate was uneventful as usual, stopping only briefly at Ichiraku’s for some ramen on Sasuke’s request. Sasuke had overheard Choji telling Shikamaru it was good the day before and the Uchiha boy wanted to try it for himself. Naruto really liked it and had seven bowls. When they got home instead of heading into the living room Itachi went the opposite way, telling both boys to follow him. He led them both to the dining room, which confused them slightly considering they just ate not too long ago. Turning towards the interior east wall Itachi formed one hand sign before saying, “Release”. Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other confused, they both knew enough about genjutsu to know Itachi had just broken one but they couldn’t see anything different in the room.

            Itachi meanwhile began placing his hands against the wall, searching for the hidden clasp. When he found it, he removed a sizeable portion of what Naruto always thought was a wall, revealing a door to a room he hadn’t ever known about. Itachi only knew about it because he helped his parents hide the door in the first place. Last night though Itachi had asked them if he could reveal it to Naruto and with some reluctance Fugaku agreed and Mikoto… didn’t disagree. “Naruto come here” Itachi said, beckoning the boy forward with his hand. When Naruto was standing just in front of the door, the blonde reached out to open it only to find it was locked. He tried for a few minutes, getting Sasuke to help him pull after a while, with a bemused Itachi carefully keeping his face blank and hands wrapped around his chest trying to keep in himself from laughing. It was only when a frustrated Naruto started to form the first few seals to a wind style jutsu that Itachi intervened stopping the boy from trying to blow a hole in his own house. “Naruto” he said, when he saw the blonde look back at him and knowing he had the boy’s attention he continued, “it’s a blood seal. Bite your thumb and wipe it on the handle”.

            The blonde did what he asked, grumbling under his breath about a certain stupid black haired Uchiha. As soon as the boy’s blood touched the door, the wood lit up into a complicated network of light blue seals which dimmed after twenty seconds or so. Opening the door both little boys’ eyes went wide and even Itachi had to fight to keep his expression neutral. The room the door opened was the Namikaze armory, and it held an assortment of weapons. Naruto and Sasuke immediately rushed into the room. Sasuke heading for the sword rack as Naruto went towards the bo staffs. “Be careful” Itachi chided, with a small twinkle in his eye as both boys went around the room. It hours later it he practically had to drag the two out of the room to eat their supper.

* * *

            That same night as Itachi was trying to go to sleep in one of the Namikaze guest rooms, which he had claimed for his own several weeks ago, he heard rustling on the floor below him. Silently he got out the bed and grabbed a kunai, heading cautiously down the stairs. If there was an intruder or would-be assassin in the house Itachi was going to make them regret coming here. His footsteps were silent as he checked each room off the main hall, he was half way though checking them when he saw the light coming out from underneath the door to the hallway closet. He approached it cautiously kunai at the ready, laying his hand on the doorknob and turning it ever so slightly before throwing it open completely.

            Sasuke couldn’t quite explain what had happened. One second he was pushing coats out of the way and tapping on the walls, the next he was laid out on his back with a kunai hovering over his throat staring into his brother’s sharingan. Itachi to his credit pulled the blade back immediately when he saw it was Sasuke. “What the are you doing?” he asked his little brother his voice emotionless as always even if his eyebrow was twitching in annoyance. “Umm” his little brother said, his face guilty and eyes unwilling to meet his brother’s.

            Just then Itachi heard rapid footsteps coming from one of the side hallways. As the sound got closer he timed the launch of his kunai perfectly. For a normal full-grown man, the kunai would have punctured between the ribs and slipped into the heart. For Naruto, who had come barreling around the corner, it merely cut a few blonde hairs from his unruly head. All three brothers went wide eyed after that and the house remained awkwardly quiet as they tried to process what just happened. “YOU TRIED TO KILL ME” Naruto yelled, disbelief coloring his tone with more than a little hysteria seeping in as well.

            Seeing his friend was alright Sasuke just smirked saying, “Don’t feel too bad. He tried to kill me too”. Itachi who eyes had been locked onto the kunai now firmly embedded in the wall then turned his head to look down at Sasuke before turning his eyes to Naruto. “What. Are. You. Doing. Up?” Itachi asked, his voice hard and cold more than a little irritated now for having to be put in this position. Both boys exchanged a look before simultaneously answering, “Looking for secret rooms”.   

       “Naruto” Itachi sighed out sounding exhausted. He really didn’t need to be dealing with this right now. “I found one” Naruto said, with a bright smile plastered to his face. Intrigued on which room Naruto found exactly, Itachi made the mistake of loosening his grip on Sasuke. Sasuke in turn wiggled out from under Itachi and took off with Naruto down the hall. Standing quickly Itachi followed, his longer strides allowing him to catch up to the younger boys.

            Naruto had indeed found another room and as they came to a stop in front of the door, the false panel that had been covering it was leaning against the wall nearby. Sasuke asked him, “What’s in there?” Naruto shrugged, replying easily “I was waiting for you”. Biting his thumb Naruto wiped his blood on the door, the blood seal unlocking to his genetic key. When the doors opened Itachi was mildly impressed that Naruto managed to find a room even he didn’t know about. ‘I wonder who covered it up though’ he thought, unable to recall if his mother and father had mentioned any other secret rooms besides the armory. When the door opened Itachi was surprised to see a hundreds of scrolls and books occupied the room, taking up almost all the available space. Walking in Itachi briefly ran his hand over some of the book titles, they seemed predominantly to be about fuiinjutsu.

            “A library?” Naruto asked, his voice thoroughly unimpressed, he noticed Sasuke had a similar disgusted look on his face. Itachi couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the boys’ antics. “I’m not sure Naruto but” Itachi said picking up one of the scrolls and quickly unfurling it, seeing what he needed to he continued, “this could be your Uzumaki inheritance”. As he said this he turned the scroll to show Naruto the whirlpool symbol at the bottom of it. Before either of the boys could say anything else however Itachi grabbed them both by the arms telling them that they were going to sleep now, leaving no room for them to argue.  

* * *

            It was going to be Sasuke’s eighth birthday tomorrow, he had done well at his first year at the academy and he was excited for Naruto to join him this coming school year. Currently though the boys were watching in awe as his brother told them he was going to hit every target in his special training grounds simultaneously. Itachi jumped up elegantly throwing the first wave of kunai then a second wave so they would ricochet of each other and into the targets’ bullseye, as Itachi landed every target had been hit perfectly even the one in the blind spot. “Either of you want to try” Itachi asked looking between Sasuke and Naruto, Sasuke had insisted on sharing his birthday training session with his best friend. “Pfft, easy” Naruto replied, over the past couple of months he had become the same happy Naruto that he used to be. Itachi of course had to go back to active ANBU which disappointed both boys but he had promised to spend time with them whenever he could.

            “Alright then Naruto, if you’re so confident why don’t you show Sasuke how it’s done” Itachi replied, his right arm sweeping towards the practice grounds as the right side of his mouth threatened to twitch up into a smirk. Naruto predictably sauntered over to the spot where Itachi had been standing, Itachi then made a show of pulling Sasuke back with him several feet making the raven-haired boy laugh while the blonde scowled at him. Just as Itachi had done Naruto jumped up into the air and released seven kunai, but then he went through a few hand signs that Itachi had grown all too familiar with as he was training the boy. Suddenly the seven kunai became dozens of kunai. Thanks to the sheer number of them some ricocheted off one another hitting the targets, in fact a few targets had more than one kunai sticking in them close to the bullseye. Naruto seeing this, turned and bowed to the Uchiha.

            “Naruto while impressive you still failed the key to the exercise” Itachi said, a bemused lilt sneaking into his tone. “I hit the targets” Naruto argued, gesturing wildly to each of them before crossing his arms stubbornly. “Yes” Itachi conceded, “but this exercise is about precision. What if you had allies standing next to those targets could you confidently say you’d hit the bullseye without injuring them?” Naruto reluctantly nodded his head ‘no’ before mumbling under his breath, “My allies should move”. Sasuke still patted his friend on the back consoling him lightly saying that even if he failed it looked cool.

            “Sasuke your turn” Itachi told him. Sasuke then walked up to the proper spot before attempting his best replica of what Itachi did… Sasuke had to be carried home that day.

            Of course, the next day at his party no one would have ever expected he sprained his ankle the day before as he scuttles around playing with his friends. They were of course playing ninja for the majority of the party, Sasuke always picking Naruto to be the first member on his team. To say the games were one-sided would be underexaggerating, with Naruto’s training and his weird practically telepathic connection to Sasuke, the other team had no chance… that is until Itachi decided his brothers needed to be knocked down a peg or two and played ninja for the first time in years. By far the craziest event that happened at the party though was when Naruto gave Sasuke his present, a katana with a white sheath, red handle, and the Uchiha crest detailed on the hilt. Fugaku although impressed by the weapon was not happy his eight-year old had begun swinging a blade still too big for him around his house. Mikoto was scared that Naruto somehow hand a way to get such high-quality weapons custom-made. And Itachi couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness that was his eight-year old brother accidently chopping one of the legs of a dining room chair.

* * *

             It was half way through the schoolyear, as Iruka smacked Naruto and Sasuke in the back of the head, before he began teaching the class. Naruto had started sending shadow clones after experiencing the horrible boredom of the classroom the first day, the class teaching stuff he mostly already knew. In fact, after dispelling the shadow clone in his place on the second day of school, Naruto figured out that he got the clone’s memories. He then began using this trick to try and perfect his different jutsu having a dozen shadow clones at a time training. Everything had been going fine for the little jinchuuriki until one particularly boring class on a cloudy day put his clone to sleep. Sasuke, who had been sitting next to him, had tried to wake him up rather forcefully thus dispelling the clone and getting Naruto caught. This incident had led to Sasuke calling Naruto ‘Dobe’ for not being able to keep his clone from falling asleep, and getting caught for such a simple mistake. In turn Naruto began referring to Sasuke as ‘Teme’ for getting him caught. Although Mikoto chastised them both for the name-calling everyone knew it came from a place of affection and wasn’t serious. Less than a week later, Naruto had taught Sasuke the Shadow Clone Jutsu so they both could try and sneak out of class. When Fugaku saw them playing in the woods when they were supposed to be in class, the Hokage had given Iruka a new protocol for the two boys.

            As Iruka began to launch into a brief history lesson of the founding of Konoha, Naruto tuned the man out. His previous ‘Hokage training’ had already told him all he believed he needed to know of the subject. Looking out the window Naruto couldn’t help but wonder what Itachi was doing. All he knew was Itachi had been given some super-secret ANBU mission and that he hadn’t been in the village the past couple of days.

* * *

            The forest was completely silent as the twenty ANBU moved through the treetops. They had heard that a certain high-value target was back within the Land of Fire’s territory and they weren’t going to let him get away again. Itachi was on point, his cat-faced ANBU masked strapped on as his coal black eyes swept the area in front of the group. If their information was good then the target should be somewhere within one kilometer. Seeing smoke rise above some of the treetops in the distance, Itachi brought his hand up signaling for the group to stop. As they landed on their respective tree branches more than a few began reaching for their weapons, eyes quickly scanning the area. If they were completely honest, each member of this group would admit that they were more than a little scared.

            Their target was Orochimaru of the Sannin, a traitor to Konoha who had fled two years after the Kyuubi attack after his experiments had been found. Their intelligence had said he was alone, but still there was a reason everyone in the ninja world knew the Sannin. Still a twenty-on-one fight gave them pretty good odds. Looking over his shoulder, Itachi began to signal the others to break off the plan was to come upon the position from three sides, ensure there weren’t any nasty surprises, and eliminate the target as quickly as possible. Simple really… or at least in theory.

            Silently Itachi began to lead the main team of ten shinobi, including himself, towards the smoke. Their route was the shortest and most direct to the target, the other two groups would move in a double envelopment, hopefully outflanking the Sannin, once Itachi and the main group got his attention. As the neared the smoke, the trees began to thin out and Itachi slowed down again. He advanced slowly over the course of twenty minutes, trying to get a good look at the terrain and locate the target. He saw a small stream ahead of him, past that was a campfire and large tent. He and the team waited for another half-hour or so before they saw Orochimaru walk out of the tent and into some of the foliage nearby. ‘This isn’t right’ Itachi thought, before he could signal for his team to wait one of the tenser ANBU jumped from out of cover and began hurling kunai with explosive tags where he last seen Orochimaru disappear behind a bush. The others, including Itachi, were forced to follow suit as they sprung out of their positions and began throwing every jutsu and weapon they could at Orochimaru’s last known location.

            Then as the other two teams came into the clearing to get a better angle on the Sannin, a white haired-teen sprang from the camp’s tent his bones fashioned into weapons. The teen began to gracefully dodge the ANBU’s attacks retaliating with precise strikes. The other teams occupied, Itachi’s group jumped across the river in the hopes of finishing off the Orochimaru. As soon as their feet touched the ground though a very uninjured Orochimaru sprang into action. Decapitating one with the Kusanagi Blade before throwing the sword through another’s chest. Spinning away from one ANBU’s tanto strike before countering with his Striking Shadow Snake Jutsu, the serpents extending from his sleeve and biting the man’s right ankle pumping in a fast acting venom. Itachi activated his sharingan as he prepared a Fireball Jutsu, as he was still going through the hand signs though Orochimaru had retrieved the Kusanagi Blade. Using foreign kenjutsu styles the Sannin dispatched another two members of ANBU. When his jutsu was ready Itachi sent the fire ripping through the field, the flames engulfing the grass and the corpse of an ANBU, and is it went to score a direct hit on Orochimaru.

            ‘He didn’t even try and dodge’, Itachi thought as he watched one of the Sannin be engulfed by the flames. The ANBU were still cautious though as they approached the charred body. Suddenly the body’s mouth opened and another uninjured Orochimaru came out of his mouth, before any of them could react however the ‘new’ Orochimaru opened his mouth and a blade extended from it slashing through two more of the quickly thinning ANBU group before they could react. Itachi jumped back landing in the stream, he funneled chakra to his feet to stay on top of the water. As fast as he could he tried to analyze the situation and come up with a solution. Before he could however he was knocked unconscious with one heavy blow from behind by a femur wielding Kimimaro, who had finished dispatching the other ANBU teams.

* * *

            Opening his eyes took far more effort than it should have, but open them Itachi did. He was in the same clearing he was before the ground bearing scorch marks and blood stains. “Lord Orochimaru, he’s awake” Kinimaru informed his master, his voice reverent to the man that gave him purpose. “Ah, good” Orochimaru replied, with a harsh chuckle. Itachi tried to move, to do anything really, but he found he couldn’t his body tied firmly to a tree or stump, he couldn’t see. While his hands and fingers were tightly bound behind his back, preventing him from executing any jutsu. It only took a few seconds for Orochimaru to come before him and kneel down so he could meet Itachi’s eyes. Roughly grabbing his face Orochimaru began to turn it from side to side, saying, “The eyes of an Uchiha… oh how long I’ve waited”.

            “Are you ready to be my vessel?” Orochimaru asked, rhetorically. Itachi although confused at what exactly that meant kept his expression calm as he glared at the Sannin. “Tsk, no matter. I don’t really need you to say yes anyway” Orochimaru said, standing up and looking towards his companion. “Go let Kabuto know of our luck. I want my new body enhanced as soon as possible” he ordered the man giving a dismissive wave at the end, Kinimaru bowed to his master before disappearing into the woods. “Now then” Orochimaru began turning around to look Itachi in the eyes, “shall we begin”.

* * *

            Naruto was really starting to worry about Itachi, it had been over a week now from when he last seen him. Sasuke however was confident in his older brother’s skills and kept telling the boy that ‘Nothing can take down Itachi’. The pair were currently on their way over to Sasuke’s house to get his mom’s help with their homework after spending two hours after school on the playground with their friends. As they neared the Uchiha district though it was oddly quiet. Walking past the compound’s gates they both saw Sasuke’s dead relatives splayed out along the streets. “ANBU” Naruto yelled as loud as he could, knowing the old man had assigned him a small detail for his ‘protection’ after painting the Hokage monument because Kiba dared him to. Little did he know that the detail had stopped following him as soon as he walked into the Uchiha district, believing that Konoha Military Police Force would keep him out of trouble.

            Before Naruto could run back and get help though, Sasuke began running in the direction of his parent’s house. “Damn it” Naruto cursed, chasing after his friend trying to think of how he could get help without leaving his friend’s side. Stumbling into his home Sasuke was greeted by the sight of his parents’ corpses, “NO NO NO” he began screaming at the top of his lungs as tears slid down his face. Naruto came to a stop beside him, seeing what had happened his own tears began to fall as he tried to pull Sasuke away from the house. Naruto and Sasuke mirrored each other as they both wrapped their arms around their best friend and cried into their shoulder. A heavy fall behind Sasuke was the only thing that alerted the boys to the new presence.

            Turning around Sasuke saw his brother standing there in his ANBU uniform, he was bleeding from a few gashes, sharingan activated, and covered in blood. Too much blood for it to have come from solely him, but neither boy was in the right mind to notice this at the time. As Itachi’s face stared at both boys, one blonde with whisker marks and the other raven-haired sporting a single tome of a sharingan, a voice not belonging to Itachi spoke through his lips, “And so the Uchiha clan comes to an end”. Then Orochimaru, wearing Itachi like a meatsuit, darted forward his hand pulled back with a previously hidden kunai aimed to take both boys’ lives with a single swing. But then something happened to Orochimaru which had never happened to him before, his vessel fought back. Whatever remained of the real Itachi began fighting as hard as he could, seeing his brothers about to die, and through sheer force of will he was able to suppress Orochimaru and take back control. At the same time, however he knew his control wouldn’t last forever, he could already feel the Snake wresting control back over his body as the Sannin kept Itachi from plunging the kunai into his own heart. Itachi looked at his brothers, knowing this would likely be the last time he ever got to see them, he wanted to tell them so much but he knew he didn’t have time and so he spoke. The voice his own and for the first time since becoming a shinobi that voice trembled with emotion: fear for his brothers’ lives, hope for the future, despair for his clan, hatred for the Snake, all of it wrapped up into one single word, “RUN”.

            So, they ran Naruto half-dragging Sasuke at first but both boys heeding Itachi’s words soon enough sprinting as fast as their little legs would carry them away. It was then Naruto flared a bit of Kyuubi’s chakra, for the first time in months, in a desperate attempt to make someone show up. He had to do it three times as he sprinted with Sasuke alongside him, before the ANBU outside the Uchiha district radioed for backup and then came in looking for him. In spite of seeing what was possibly Konoha’s strongest clan slaughtered like animals, the ANBU still held it together enough to locate the boys. As they landed in front of them the ANBU had to reach out a catch both the sobbing kids from barreling past them. The children struggled of course and they screamed, not realizing they were safe at first. Within a few minutes the area was flooded with ANBU and the Third Hokage had arrived. Orochimaru nowhere to be found apparently giving up on killing the boys, for now.

            The Leaf ninja hadn’t known that the Snake Sannin had not yet gotten all his enhancement surgeries, that he had instead chosen to sneak in using Itachi’s face so he could kill the Uchiha while their guard was down. Had they known he had in fact been weakened to the point where he had been hesitant on engaging the ANBU he saw catch the boys, then they likely would have pursued, caught up with, and finally killed the Snake.

            But they didn’t know, they didn’t pursue, and Orochimaru escaped.

* * *

            The following night jonin Kakashi Hatake came to the Hokage tower to report his team’s two-month long mission of ensuring the Leaf’s western border with Grass, the place Stone would most likely invade from, was secure. After hearing, everything that happened Kakashi made a request of the Third before he ran to the Namikaze estate, where he was told both boys were being kept under heavy guard. Seconds after stepping onto the property’s grounds he was surrounded by ANBU and he could sense more of them holding back and taking defensive positions. Slowly and carefully Kakashi had removed the Hokage’s orders authenticated by his signature and seal, handing them over. Then after several minutes of radio calls asking for authentication codes, complying with a Yamanaka searching his mind, designated runners traveling between the Hokage tower and the estate, Kakashi was finally let through. Walking in through the main door Kakashi was greeted by more jonin and chunin all ready for combat in case a hostile somehow made it this far. It was apparent how the massacre of one of Konoha’s founding clans had put the Hokage, along with everyone else, on edge. Hiruzen wasn’t going to let anyone have another chance at killing the Last Uchiha or the Fourth’s legacy.         

            Carefully Kakashi went up the stairs not wanting to wake the boys if they were lucky enough to have found sleep. Turning right at the silent signal from a guard at the top of the stairs he went down the hall, poking his head in on one room. In the bed was a sleeping Sasuke, a few medical-nin having given the boy a tonic to help him sleep but kept him from dreaming, they had been afraid of what nightmares the boy could have. The boy had awakened his sharingan but luckily neither he nor Naruto knew it, the Hokage had sworn those who saw it to secrecy, and kept it out of the official reports. Hiruzen believed if the boy knew he had the doujutsu, even an immature one, he would be emboldened to go after Orochimaru before he was ready. They knew of course that he would want to go after him no matter what but they hoped they could train him for a few years at least before that. Looking towards the guard outside the Uchiha’s room, he used ANBU hand signals to ask, ‘And the other one?’. The man replied with a single nod towards the closed door at the end of the hallway.

            Turning the knob slowly and opening the door slowly to try and keep the noise at a minimum, Kakashi opened the door just wide enough to poke his head in. He looked at the empty bed first before his eyes searched the room finding the boy sitting in a chair partially facing the outside window overlooking the front of the property. The same tonic the medic-nin had given Sasuke not being strong enough to knock the jinchuuriki out. Kakashi considered knocking to get his attention when they boy’s head turned back to look at him. “Dog come in” he said, his voice disturbingly calm raising his right hand off the armrest beckoning Kakashi closer. “How did you know it was me?” Kakashi asked, considering the boy had only ever seen him when Kakashi was wearing his dog-faced ANBU mask. It was also around this exact moment that Hatake realized he was nervous not knowing what exactly to do now that he was really here. “Hair” Naruto replied simply, without looking at him, the blonde’s voice still filtered of emotions. Kakashi almost chuckled at bit at the answer, he wanted to but given the gravity of the situation and the worrying sight in front of him he couldn’t.

            Kakashi didn’t really know what to say to the boy, so he said the first thing that came to mind, “How are you doing?” A bitter chuckle escaped the boy’s lips, before he turned his eyes back to Kakashi. “How do you think?” the blonde asked, his voice although still calm was laced with an undertone of pain. Kakashi nodded his head slightly not sure how to reply as he moved to the boy’s bed and sat down on the edge facing him. The minutes ticked by in silence Naruto going back to looking out the window as Kakashi lowered his head staring at the floorboards, until finally Naruto asked, “Why are you here?”. Kakashi’s eye lifted to meet Naruto’s blue, before replying, “To help you with whatever you need”. Naruto smiled a moment before looking back out the window. The silence was just beginning to settle into the room again when the blonde turned back to him his blue eyes cold and his voice hard as he said, “I need to kill him”. Kakashi took a moment to look at the boy, really look at him. He saw passed the cool ice inhabiting the surface of his blue eyes finding the raging maelstrom of anger that lay beneath, he saw how the boy’s fingers were curled around the ends of the armrests in a vice like grip, and he heard how his breathing was entirely too steady, too controlled, to be natural. “Naruto--” Kakashi began but the boy cut him off. “He killed those I cared for…” he began but then stopped correcting himself, “…those that I loved. As long as he’s out there he is a danger to anyone I still have left”.

            Kakashi, looking back to the floor, remained quiet for several moments before asking, “Naruto let me tell you from experience, revenge isn’t enough?” Naruto let out another bitter laugh, remembering the last heart-to-heart conversation he had in this room and looking to the doorway where Itachi had stood, echoing the man’s words the blonde said, “It has to be”. “It won’t fill that hole in your heart, Naruto” Kakashi said, looking at the blonde with his one exposed eye imploring him not to go down this path. Naruto turned his head from the doorway back to Kakashi. That’s when Kakashi saw something new in those blue orbs, it was an indomitable determination the jonin had only seen once before in his sensei’s eyes. Then Naruto spoke voice firmer than he would expect from even a veteran shinobi, “It’s a start”.

            And so Kakashi knew Naruto had chosen his path, he would kill Orochimaru if it was the last thing he did.      


	4. Team 7

            “Alright just one more Mizuki, you ready?” Iruka asked, a smile plastered onto his face, as the man started looking over his clipboard. Today was graduation day and the students were undergoing their final test to see if they would qualify as genin. Mizuki, seated next to him, was equal parts bored of these exams and frustrated at his job as a chunin instructor. Iruka was rather happy at the moment considering all his students were passing, and he was sure that this next student would pass. In fact, for the past three years they had offered him the opportunity to take the graduation exam early, he had refused instead planting himself next to Sasuke Uchiha so he could always be there to back him up or train with him. This student name, of course, was Naruto Namikaze.

            Noticing Mizuki’s distant expression Iruka shrugged and motioned for the third chunin to let the boy in. A few seconds later the blonde walked in wearing a light grey long sleeved jacket with the Namikaze crest on the back, along with a white shirt and blue shorts. His back was ramrod straight, his steps confident as they carried him into the room. He came to a stop a few feet in front of the proctors’ table he went into a rigid stance his feet together and hands clasped behind his back. Naruto gave a single nod to both instructors signaling he was ready. Iruka gave the boy a smile, although he may have slacked off some of the time with the lazier kids he knew the boy was well ahead of the curve. Mizuki simply slumped forward, bringing his right hand up to rest his head in as he watched the boy with disinterest. “Lord Namikaze” Iruka greeted, using the boys formal title. It irked Mizuki to no end how this boy could attain a status as clan head, even though his clan was nonexistent. He did have to begrudgingly respect Naruto’s tenacity though; the blonde had used the wealth and name he inherited along with some politicking to get himself a position on the ninja council at the age of ten. A few of the council had been opposed of course but being friends with the clan heads’ kids and Hiruzen’s support had gotten him a seat. The influence that might normally go with such a position was lessened due to his young age, however, the blonde was fine with that… for now at least.           

            “Could you please perform a henge, subsitution, and clone jutsu please?” Iruka asked, his smile hiding behind a mask of formality but still showing through his eyes. “Any clones will do?” Naruto spoke for the first time since coming in. Iruka nodded. The blonde quickly demonstrated the first two techniques turning himself into perfect copy of Iruka, then he threw a kunai directly into the air substituting once when it nearly touched the ceiling and then again before it hit the floor. He then caught the kunai and slipped it back into his holster, Iruka clapped at the impressive display as Mizuka thought, ‘Showoff’. Naruto then did a few hand signs ending in a cross sign neither teacher was familiar with, as he said, “Shadow Clone Jutsu”. There was a puff of smoke and out of it emerged three Narutos. Iruka clapped complimenting the boy on the advanced technique but Mizuki stared at the boy stonily. ‘The demon brat has a forbidden technique?! I’m a chunin and he’s a lord?! He’s nothing but a Fox’ Mizuki thought his fingers digger deeper into his palms as he watched the blonde stand there, with a small infuriating smirk on his face. ‘That’s it I’m done with this village’ Mizuki thought as he gave the brat top marks on his scoresheet. Watching the blonde leave the room Mizuki began to formulate a plan, he nodded vaguely to whatever stupid thing Iruka was saying. Then a small sinister smile crossed his lips as he thought of someone else who had grown tired of the village who had done quite well for themselves, someone who could protect him from anyone the Leaf sent after him, and then he began to think what he could offer this someone.

* * *

            “Well?” Kiba asked, as the blonde walked out of the academy. Naruto simply shrugged with a smile, as he replied, “Did you really think I wouldn’t pass?” Naruto then looked over the group in front of him: Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Kiba, Shino, and Sakura. Looking to the two fangirls, they immedietly understood his question: it was the one he always asked when Sasuke was missing. “He went to go train” they both replied in unison. Naruto simply nodded before Kiba threw an arm over his shoulder and declared, “Ichiraku’s to celebrate everyone?” They all nodded and began heading off in that direction.

            Over the past four years, Naruto and Sasuke had a bit of a falling out. Sasuke was clear in his intentions wanting to kill Orochimaru immediately and Naruto was like that too for the first few months after the Uchiha massacre but he seemed to calm down after that. These disparate reactions caused a rift to form between the two young boys, Sasuke moved out of the Namikaze estate and began living in a penthouse of an apartment building near the center of the village. The boys were still friends but things were tenser. Where Sasuke had isolated himself, Naruto reached out to people made friends, only Hyuga had remained carefully wary of the jinchuuriki. Naruto also resumed his ‘Hokage training’ three months after the massacre which taught him enough about politics to get himself a seat on the ninja council as head of the Namikaze clan. Naruto also resumed more rigorous ninja training with several different jonin and chunin instructors.

            Later as the group left Ichiraku’s Naruto promised them all he would throw a party at his place sometime after graduation. This had gotten the group excited, Ino and Sakura especially when they heard he was going to invite Sasuke. The two girls had remained friends even though they both had a crush on Sasuke, because Naruto provided a second and very tempting option. Naruto knew this and honestly didn’t care if he was the backup option, he had bigger goals than romance. As he watched his friends disappear down the street heading off to their respective houses, Naruto decided to head to one of his favorite places to relax for a little while.

* * *

            He sat on the Fourth Hokage’s head till it was well into the night, Naruto could hear his stomach growling as he thought, ‘Dad I hope you’re proud of the man I’ve become and I’m sorry--‘. His inner monologue was cut short as he saw a figure dash out of the Hokage tower and jump into the tree line. ‘That’s curious’ Naruto thought to himself before going after the figure. Down below in the Hokage tower a chunin guard lay nearly dead and the Forbidden Scroll had been stolen. It would be ten more minutes before anyone found the man and raised the alarm, even then they wouldn’t know who they were after or which way they went.

* * *

            ‘I got it, Orochimaru will surely accept me if I offer him such a gift. No going back now, I’ll make them regret not respecting me and forcing me to deal with all those brats at the academy’ as Mizuki thought this, he saw someone up ahead of him. Stopping on the branch he was on, he looked down at the Namikaze boy resting, eyes closed, back against a tree in the clearing. ‘Ha, I get the Forbidden Scroll and kill the nine-tails brat, must be my lucky night’ Mizuki thought with a bloodthirsty grin, as he pulled the giant shuriken off his back. He took a moment to steady his hands, they were shaking with anticipation, and then he threw the weapon directly at the boy. It hit him in the shoulder and pinned the boy to the tree. Mizuki heard him yelp in pain before calling out for help, his smile got bigger as he jumped down from the tree branch. Bigger still as the Naruto’s eyes filled with fear when he began approaching the blonde faster, kunai drawn. As he pulled back his arm to thrust the blade in the boy’s throat, he stopped. The boy was smiling, then Naruto opened his jacket revealing paper bombs strapped all over himself. The resulting explosion knocked Mizuki a dozen feet back, when Mizuki opened his eyes he saw black boots standing beside him.

            Looking down on the man, Naruto smiled, “Interesting fact I learned about shadow clones, the more chakra I give them the more of a beating they can take before they disperse”. Mizuki looked up at the smiling boy, his ribs hurt, his head hurt… everything hurt. Still he had some energy left, “You’re nothing but a fox, a demon”. Naruto shrugged saying, “Power is power”. He didn’t really care what a soon to be dead man thought, as he drew a kunai out of his holster and brought it down aiming for the man’s skull. Mizuki however had regained enough of his wits to perform a substitution jutsu with a log, and was now behind some bushes to the blonde’s side readying some regular shuriken. Before he could throw them however a sharp pain erupted in the upper-left side of his chest, looking down he saw a wind-enhanced kunai sticking out. “You really were a terrible instructor. Why I thought you might make a good challenge is beyond me” the real Naruto whispered into his ear as his clone in the clearing dispelled. Leaving his kunai in the cooling corpse Naruto walked back out into the clearing, picking up the scroll that had been dropped in the fray. “Now let’s see here” Naruto said, unfurling it.

* * *

            Iruka and some Inuzuka trackers found the blonde in the clearing, an hour or so after that. He was brought before the Third Hokage, who listened to all the boy had to say of the encounter and how he had ‘just barely’ opened the scroll, which he had ‘no idea’ was the Forbidden Scroll, before Iruka and the others arrived. Hiruzen could tell the boy was lying but he also believed that the boy wouldn’t have been able to learn a forbidden jutsu in such a short amount of time without an instructor. Then again, he had learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu quickly, but that was a forbidden jutsu more for the amount of chakra required than anything else and the rest of forbidden jutsu were much more complicated in comparison. Hiruzen briefly considered sending a Yamanka in to put up any mental blocks to what he may have learned but decided against it remembering the Fox was still in the boy. So, Naruto was let off with a mixture of compliment and reprimand for his actions.      

* * *

            The next day in class, Naruto received many congratulatory pats on the back from Kiba. Shino simply gave him a single nod saying, “Well done”. Chogi brought him a bag of chips to have… then to share as he ran out of his early before Iruka even started announcing genin teams. Shikamaru admonished him lightly saying, “Not even your first day and you’re already stopping traitors. Troublesome” before he turned his gaze out the window to watch the clouds go by. Sakura and Ino were both still trying to determine where Sasuke was going to sit, trying to choose correctly so that when he came in he’d sit next to them. It was as the pink haired and platinum blonde girls were arguing that Sasuke walked in. “Dobe” he said, walking up behind Naruto. When the blonde turned to look at him, Sasuke stood in front of him for a second before offering his hand saying, “well done”. Smiling Naruto shook Sasuke’s hand replying, “Thanks Teme”. He then looked at Sasuke a bit more seriously saying, “Hey, I’m going to be throwing graduation party in the next week or so, you should come” when Sasuke looked hesitant the blonde added a quiet, “please”. The raven-haired boy, looked to his friend… to his only friend if he was being honest with himself and nodded. It was then that Iruka walked in with a clipboard. Everyone quickly found their seats, Naruto sitting in the front row, Sasuke sitting next to him and Sakura plopping down next to him before Ino could. Naruto had an evil gleam in his eye as he got up and offered his seat to Ino walking back further into the room. He sat next to Shikamaru and watched Sasuke’s body language scream in discomfort at being put in between his two fangirls.   

     Iruka seeing everyone was seated, kept his gaze briefly on Naruto for a second. He wasn’t suspicious, since the chunin guard, was healed and said it was Mizuki who had attacked him. No, he was concerned because one of his students killed a man last night. Now he wasn’t an idiot he remembered hearing whispers of Naruto killing a traitor years ago and how he had dispatched a few assassins personally over the years, so this should be nothing new for the boy. Still Iruka found himself worrying, not because the boy looked like he was struggling but because the boy looked like he was fine, perfectly okay and that was an altogether different worry. Still he couldn’t help the boy much anymore, he just hoped Kakashi would be able to. So Iruka looked down and announced the genin team assignments. It was usually the top scoring boy and top scoring kunoichi would have been paired with class’s dead last, however, Hiruzen knew Naruto would never accept being on a different team than Sasuke so an exception was made. Sakura was placed with them because she was believed one of the few, who might be able to keep up with the two boys. Ino was a bit annoyed that Sakura got both Naruto and Sasuke on her team but she got over it when Shikamaru reminded her of Naruto’s party. Then jonin started to arrive picking up their teams. Soon only Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto remained.

            It took only about fifteen minutes before Naruto’s anger began to flare up. Sakura then started to ask him details about the party, attempting to calm her friend down. Naruto who actually hadn’t given much thought to it began going over ideas with Sakura, as Sasuke pretended not to listen. It was maybe twenty-five minutes after that when they ran out of practical party ideas. Luckily the always late jonin arrived before the first hour was up, which all things considered meant Kakashi had been rushing. “Yo” the silver-haired copy-nin said, poking his head in the doorway. Sakura and Sasuke looked a little perturbed but grunted a greeting in response. Naruto, however, sat back in his seat calm before saying, “Long time no see, Dog”. Kakashi gave the boy his famous eye smile, remembering the last time he’d seen the blonde was over two years ago. Naruto had been rather angry with the jonin for not teaching him more dangerous lighting jutsu, to be fair though the boy had asked for Kakashi’s signature chidori. Kakashi believed he wasn’t ready for such a move and had explained that without a sharingan it left the user open to counters, just as Minato had explained to him many years ago. Naruto hadn’t liked that answer, an argument ensued, Kakashi in no uncertain terms said Minato wouldn’t approve, and shortly after that the training sessions came to an end. “Meet me on the roof” the jonin said, before using the Body Flicker Jutsu to get to the roof. As he turned to face the door he was mildly surprised to feel someone show up next to him, a second later he remembered how much training Naruto had. He looked at the blonde boy then and calm blue eyes stared back at him. He then saw a brief swirl of leaves as Sasuke appeared next to Naruto, ‘Right, they’re best friends’ Kakashi thought. The three stood there in semi-awkward silence for a few minutes before a slightly sweaty Sakura came out of the stairwell door.

            Kakashi gestured in front of him, clearly asking his students to sit down for a moment. The three did, the boys sitting with their legs crossed as Sakura folded hers up and sat on them, she was in her usual red dress after all. “Alright let’s get to know each other by saying our names, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, and hobbies” Kakashi said, with an eye smile. Sakura for her part smiled back, wanting to get along with her new sensei. Sasuke and Naruto however looked thoroughly unimpressed, both letting out a very similar ‘hm’ sound. Seeing none of them were going to volunteer to go first Kakashi said, “Alright I’ll go first. I’m Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes… My dreams for the future… Hmm… As for my hobbies…I have lots of hobbies…”. Sakura’s sweat dropped at that, ‘Way to tell us nothing’ she thought, before Kakashi pointed to her saying, “Now you”. “I’m Sakura Haruno. My likes are…” she blushed looking a Sasuke and Naruto. “My dislikes are…hmm” she thought for a moment before continuing, “snakes?” At this Kakashi felt a small chill go down his spine as both boys looked at the girl with critical eyes. When it was clear the girl was no longer comfortable continuing, understandably so since both her teammates were staring at her as if trying to see into her soul, Kakashi pointed his finger at Sasuke and said, “You”. Sasuke turned his slight scowl at the jonin before beginning with a huff, “My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things and I like… my friend”. As he said this he gave a side glance to Naruto, even if they had grown apart Naruto was still like a brother to him. He then continued, “What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I’m going to restore my clan, and kill a certain Snake”. Kakashi nodded his head, he expected an answer like that and to be honest anything else would’ve made the copy-nin question the sincerity of his answer. Then Kakashi turned his one visible eye to Naruto. The blonde sat back with a smile saying, “My name is Naruto Namikaze. I like learning new jutsu and training. I dislike people who refuse to teach me” he said pointedly glaring at the jonin, “and hate traitors. My dreams for the future… well if you watch me close enough you may figure it out. And one of my hobbies is dealing with ninja council meetings when I feel like it”. Kakashi knew the boy wasn’t telling the whole truth, but he had no intention of calling him out on it… not yet at least. “Alright everyone, meet at the third training ground tomorrow at seven in the morning, and if you don’t want to puke skip breakfast” the silver-haired jonin said, before disappearing in swirl of leaves.

* * *

            The following morning Team 7’s genin were standing in Konoha’s third training ground waiting for their jonin instructor. Little did they know as they were doing this, Kakashi was sneaking into their homes and searching their things to see what he could learn. It was around ten o’clock in the morning when Kakashi finally arrived, “Sorry guys, I got lost on the road of life” he excused. Sakura was doing her best not to look angry, Sasuke had his trademark scowl that he’d been wearing everywhere for years, and Naruto squinted at the jonin, before shrugging. “This test is very simple” Kakashi said, pulling out two bells from his vest, “whoever gets a bell off of me passes, if you fail to get a bell by noon you go without lunch”. At this all three kids’ stomachs growled in protest of such an idea. Kakashi continued, “and finally if you don’t have a bell by the end of the exercise… you’ll be sent back to the academy”. “You can’t do that!” Sakura yelled. “I can and I will” Kakashi replied, evenly. “There are only two bells” Sasuke observed. “Yes, that’s true, which means one of you won’t get one” Kakashi replied easily. Sasuke and Naruto for their part did not show any signs of worry, instead gaining a steely look in their eyes as their jaws set in determination. ‘Guess if you grow up together you’re bound to be similar…but still it’s like their twins’ Kakashi thought idly to himself, before he said, “If you want to get one of these bells you’re going to have to come after me with the intention to kill. Begin”. 

Sakura and Sasuke jumped away, she hid under some bushes to Kakashi’s right as Sasuke rested in a tree branch not far from her. Naruto simply stood there staring Kakashi down, “Not good at this whole stealth thing are you” Kakashi mused, a smirk beneath his mask as he noted the boy’s tenacity to take him head on. Naruto smiled as his hands started moving through hand signs Kakashi had taught him, Kakashi began moving through the same hand signs only he had practiced this jutsu many times and so it required seven less hand signs than the full one. “Lightning Flower Jutsu” Kakashi said, as he finished bringing his hands together, in front of him wisps of light connected in a shape resembling a flower before five different lightning bolts began arcing towards Naruto one from each side and three down the center. The blonde tried to dodge but couldn’t and was hit with the full force of the jutsu, as he was hit though he disappeared in a puff of smoke. ‘He hadn’t used a substitution’ Kakashi thought, puzzled for a moment before he figured it out his one visible eye widened as he thought, ‘Shadow clone’. At that moment the real Naruto said, “Fireball Jutsu”, from behind him sending a fireball hurtling at the man. He had a clone standing next to him who finished its own hand signs, “Great Breakthrough Jutsu” it said, releasing a condensed stream of wind from his mouth. The fireball was engorged by the wind jutsu, Sasuke and Sakura reflexively shielded their eyes from the intensity of the fire. When the blaze ended a sizeable portion of the field in front of Naruto was left as blackened earth and ash. Naruto looked for Kakashi’s form in front of him, he was suddenly pulled down into the earth so only his head was showing. Kakashi then delivered a strong right hook to his clone dispelling it. Kakashi then stood directly in front of Naruto, looking at the scorched field for a moment, letting out a appreciative whistle. Before he turned back and looked at the boy. “That was good Naruto… for a genin” the man said, he knew of course a cooperative jutsu like that was in fact practically unheard of for a genin but he wanted to rile the boy up. 

Before he could continue angering the boy though ten shuriken flew out from the trees, their aim would have struck true if Kakashi hadn’t substituted himself for a log. As Sasuke landed in front of Naruto he greeted, “Dobe”. “Teme” the blonde replied, nodding his head, which was really all he could do at the moment. “Any more of your shadow clones in the area?” Sasuke asked. Naruto merely smiled as Kakashi was forced to jump, from the position he took up in the trees, three angry blonde clones pursuing him. “Thanks” Sasuke muttered as he took off towards Kakashi. Kakashi meanwhile had dispelled the three clones, two with kunai and one with a explosive note to the back. The jonin was still turning to face Sasuke when he had to block the first of the boy’s attacks, a right-handed hook. He then had to block a left kick with his other hand. Sasuke went for the bells with his free left hand then, getting a finger against one of them before the jonin threw him backwards. The two engaged in a purely taijutsu spar, Sasuke throwing his all into as Kakashi maneuvered him to where he needed to. Then Kakashi saw his opening kicking the boy hard in the chest, he sent Sasuke flying into a tree. As Sasuke’s back hit the wood Kakashi let two shuriken fly with a thick gauge of ninja wire between them, the shuriken went around the tree wrapping the ninja wire around Sasuke a few times before the imbedded themselves in the bark. Kakashi seeing the boy immobilized at least for the moment headed off into the woods to test Sakura with a simple genjutsu… she did not take it well.

* * *

 

            It took a while but eventually Naruto got free, he then went about collecting both his teammates. Now they were all currently sitting under a tree. “We need to work together” Naruto said. “But there are only two bells” Sakura pointed out nervously, knowing that the two would rather work together than with her. “That’s true…but I don’t need one” Naruto said, with a smile. Sasuke nearly face-vaulted at this, he did not want to be stuck with Sakura alone. He was about to tell him as much, “Dobe--“ but Naruto interrupted, “I can go back to the academy, demand to take the genin test again and then get reassigned to this team. Remember I’m the son of the great Minato Namikaze, I can do anything”. As he said this he planted his fists against his waist and looked off into the distance with his best stoic expression. Sakura couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her and Sasuke smirked at his friend’s willingness to play the political game. So, it was there under a tree on the third training grounds that Team 7’s genin really started working together for the first time.

* * *

            ‘I wonder what they’re up to?’ Kakashi thought, as his eyes scanned over the page of his favorite little orange book, it would be noon soon if the sun was anything to go by. He was careful to keep his senses open waiting for the next attack by the boys, as he paged through his ‘romance’ novel. That’s when he noticed it, a chakra presence… but it wasn’t Sasuke or Naruto interestingly enough. ‘Headhunter Jutsu or another genjutsu’ Kakashi pondered as he watched the pink-haired kunoichi through the leaves of his hiding place. Genjutsu he decided as he jumped down and began making his way towards her, then he felt to more chakra presences farther behind her. ‘What are they doing?’ Kakashi thought, now slightly intrigued, was this a coordinated group effort or were both boys merely using her as bait. Deciding to find out he stepped out from the shadow of a tree, waving at Sakura saying, “Hello”. “He’s here” she yelled, drawing a kunai and holding it defensively in front of her chest. Immediately Kakashi could feel the two other chakras approaching faster. Less than ten seconds later, Naruto and Sasuke burst through some shrubbery and were standing side-by-side with Sakura. Naruto was beginning to bring his hands into a familiar cross hand sign, Sasuke was already pulling shuriken out, and Sakura was rolling explosive notes onto a few kunai. ‘Should I let this play out’ Kakashi thought as he watched his three students…’no’ he decided as Naruto created over a hundred shadow clones.

            “Wait” Kakashi said, raising one hand to his team. Each of the genin turned to one another, all equally curious on what Kakashi could possibly say, they all then looked back to Kakashi waiting for him to say whatever it was. “You all remember they’re only two bells, right?” Kakashi asked, they all nodded. “Yet you’re all working together, why?” the jonin asked. The three of them shared a look before Naruto explained, “I don’t need a bell. I have enough resources to make sure I won’t be sent back to the academy”. The blonde looked to his squad mates for a moment before turning back to Kakashi, saying “They don’t”. Not quite the answer he was looking for, but then again what Naruto said was true. ‘Perhaps the bell test wasn’t the best way to go’ Kakashi thought, grimacing slightly. Still Naruto and Sasuke could’ve abandoned Sakura and they didn’t. Sakura in turn trusted her teammates to come to her side, enough to risk being bait. It wasn’t perfect but it was a start, and it was the closest any team Kakashi trained had come. So Kakashi held up his right hand his pointer finger extended and said, “Remember, in the ninja world those that abandon their friends are worse than scum. Even if it goes against the mission, never abandon your friends”. He watched each of his genin, Sakura was the first to nod smiling standing in-between her two crushes, she would die before abandoning either of them. Sasuke cast a glance to Naruto then a brief one to Sakura before nodding. Naruto’s smile spread across his whole face as he gave a single nod, but there was still something about it that worried Kakashi. ‘I guess this is the best I’m going to get’ Kakashi thought, before saying, “Good then you all pass”. The kids were exuberant at the news Sakura jumping up and down and as Sasuke let a rare smile cross his lips. Naruto and his clones started dancing with each other before they dispelled. Kakashi then informed the group of their next training session before he let them go. The genin then went their separate ways, Naruto reminding them of the party later that evening.

* * *

            “Kakashi, report” Hiruzen said, sitting at his desk using the Telescope Technique to watch Naruto through his crystal ball. He was worried for the young Namikaze, Naruto had never been quite the same after the Uchiha massacre his smile never quite reaching his eyes after that. “Did he use any new forbidden jutsu, during the test?” the Third asked. “No. Either he didn’t learn any new ones… or I didn’t push him hard enough” Kakashi said, hesitating for a moment before continuing, “I think he may have been holding back”. Hiruzen regarded what Kakashi said sharply, wondering just what gave the jonin that impression before he asked, “And what did you find in their houses?” “Sakura’s home was what you’d expect. She had a few pictures of Sasuke some of Naruto too, she obviously has a crush. Nothing out of the ordinary” Kakashi reported, as Hiruzen watched Naruto pour punch into a small bowl, before handing it over to Kiba, who in turn gave it to his dog, Akimaru. “Sasuke’s apartment was immaculate and orderly. He had a Fuma shuriken in its collapsed form under his pillow, which was a little worrying but understandable” Kakashi continued, the crystal ball showing Naruto sitting down with his friends to play a game of cards. “Naruto’s place was also very clean and orderly, but far more worrying” Kakashi said. Looking up Hiruzen asked, “How so?” Kakashi handed him a piece of paper saying, “I found a book of poetry, one page was earmarked I copied the poem down before putting it back”.

            Hiruzen looked down at the poem in front of him _A Poison Tree_. He began to read it, “ _I was angry with my friend; I told my wraith, my wraith did end, I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wraith did grow_ ”. Hiruzen looked up to Kakashi for a moment before continuing, “ _And I watered it in fears, Night and morning with my tears:_ ” as he read this he looked back at the crystal ball seeing a vase on the table the group was playing cards at, in the vase were purple flowers looking more closely Hiruzen remembered they were flowers Konoha used to make poisons. He kept his eyes on the boy, for a second, the blonde smiling and laughing with his friends, “ _And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both day and night. Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine. And into my garden stole. When the night had veiled the pole; In the morning glad I see; My foe outstretched beneath the tree_ ”. As he finished Hiruzen stopped his Telescope Technique and gave his full attention to Kakashi, “Your assessment?” Kakashi stood there for several moments before saying, “Sakura won’t be a problem, but the other two.… Sasuke’s angry he has a single goal in mind and he’s focused solely on that, he’ll be difficult but manageable”. Kakashi then paused, trying to figure out the best way to word it before continuing, “Naruto’s anger is a different animal, it’s calmer, he’s still working towards the same goal… in fact I doubt he’s even considered wanting anything else in life” as he said this the jonin remembered that conversation four years ago, ‘It’s a start’ echoed through his head for a moment. “He’ll be more difficult, I don’t know if I’ll be managing him or if he’ll somehow work me into his plans…” Kakashi finished. Hiruzen looked at the disheartened shinobi in front of him, feeling similar emotions of shame at not being able to protect the boys and being forced to watch them be consumed by revenge.

            “You’ll do your best” the Third Hokage said, “that’s all any of us can do”. “Hai” Kakashi replied, sounding tired. With that the jonin was dismissed and Hiruzen was left with his thoughts, ‘If only I stopped my former pupil when I had the chance, none of this would have happened… forgive me Minato’.

* * *

            Sasuke was seriously considering turning around and leaving, as he raised his hand to knock on the Namikaze door. He was already late, since he spent over an hour debating with himself on why he should go to the blonde’s party, after all Naruto had left him to avenge the Uchiha by himself. The blonde going off to make new friends and get involved in council politics, instead of staying with Sasuke and plotting their retribution. Just as he was about to turn around and leave, Naruto opened the door, asking “How long were you going to wait?”. Sasuke merely shrugged as the blonde pulled him into the mansion. “Everyone Sasuke is here” Naruto yelled. Before the blonde could drag Sasuke to the other guests, Sasuke asked the question that had been on his mind for years, his voice full of anger and hurt as he asked, “How could you give up on killing that Snake?” Naruto looked at Sasuke for a moment before finally saying, “Is that what you think? You think I gave up”. He then dragged Sasuke past his other guests into the kitchen excusing himself by telling them all he was going to get Sasuke a drink.

            When they came to a stop in the kitchen, Naruto turned to Sasuke and asked, “What did you see?” Confused Sasuke asked, “What do you mean what did I see?”. “In there” Naruto said, pointing back to the room they just walked through. “Our classmates, your friends” Sasuke said, still confused. Naruto looked slightly frustrated and his tone certainly conveyed that as he said, “You want to know what I saw?” Naruto with little patience had gripped Sasuke by both shoulders making sure he had the Uchiha’s attention. “I saw family jutsus from all over Konoha, I saw future clan heads, people with influence and power. I saw help” Naruto told him seriously, all the childlike happiness and humor he was known for was gone from his tone. Naruto briefly considered telling Sasuke that since he was on the ninja council he had access to intelligence reports as well but ultimately, he decided to keep that information to himself. “I have to kill him, though. An Uchiha should do it!” Sasuke replied. “Maybe, but who’s to say we can’t have help getting there” Naruto replied with a smile. It took a few moments before Sasuke own lips began to twitch, ‘So he never stopped wanting to kill him either’ he thought. “Come on, let’s go say hi to our friends” Naruto said, the seriousness washed from his tone as a fake happiness replaced it. Lightly slapping Sasuke on the back as he moved past him, he grabbed a red apple of the counter before heading back towards the party. Sasuke felt a grin spread wide across his face as he thought over what Naruto had just told him. Laughing softly Sasuke thought, ‘Naruto, you might just be the most dangerous shinobi I know” before he too went out to join the party.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not completely happy with this chapter, it rehashed the actual Naruto story but I wanted to show the difference in how Naruto and Sasuke are approaching revenge. Also sorry if the whole "A Poison Tree" (by William Blake if you didn't know) poem was off putting. I know it's a little universe breaking but I like the poem and once I got it in my head I couldn't help but include it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Next chapter will be Team 7's first C ranked mission or at least the first part of their mission and I promise to try an keep the rehashing to a minimum in the future


	5. First C rank

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I went back to chapter two and changed the why Naruto having blonde hair explanation to a seal not hair dyes. fanficaddict65 had suggested a seal would work better in the comments and after discussing it with a friend and realizing it wouldn't really change anything about my story I decided to go back and edit it. So if anyone has been reading this for the hair dye you have my apologies. 
> 
> On that note, if you see something you think could be done better tell me. If your idea is good and it won't effect the major points of the story I'll consider it.

            “How many more yards are we going to have to weed?” Naruto lamented, as he pulled up another weed in the elderly woman’s front yard. Sasuke grunted out a noise in agreement but otherwise kept weeding. It had been over a month since, he had officially become a genin and all Team 7 had done since then were D rank missions. “As many as the Hokage orders you to, I suppose” Kakashi said, snapping his Icha Icha book closed for a moment as he looked to the boy with his eye smile continuing, “You say you want to be a ninja, well this is part of that. You wouldn’t want to fail a mission right, Naruto?”. Kakashi knew the boy was just as headstrong as his mother and would never give up, and that’s why no matter how much he wanted to believe Naruto had given up on revenge, he couldn’t. Naruto crossed his arms looking at the man, clearly annoyed with him. In Naruto’s defense, Kakashi had been using the ‘you don’t want to fail, right’ spiel as his go to response for the past week.

            Sakura seeing her teammate glaring at their sensei, thought, ‘Idiot, acting like that is not going to do us any favors’. Truth be told she was also rather annoyed with the constant D ranks, which were little more than chores to do around the village. It was a mixture of frustration with D ranks and irritation with her friend’s antics, that fueled her to walk up behind Naruto and punch him on top of the head as hard as she could. When her fist connected and a second later he became a puff of smoke, she was left standing there blinking a few times in confusion. From his spot, sitting on the front yard’s fence, Kakashi’s visible eye narrowed, ‘A shadow clone… why am I not surprised’ he thought. Then the jonin’s head swiveled to look at Sasuke, who was trying not to draw attention to himself. “Sasuke come here” the jonin ordered, as he curled his pointer and middle fingers in a come-hither motion. When the boy was standing right in front of him, Kakashi continued, pulling out a kunai and twirling it between his fingers “Tell Naruto he is supposed to come on these missions himself, not send clones” Kakashi paused for a second before saying, “and the same goes for you” before he stabbed Sasuke in the shoulder. Sakura screamed for a moment before Sasuke went up in a puff of smoke as well. Kakashi was about to turn his attention to Sakura to make sure she wasn’t a clone too but before he could she was already storming off down the street yelling things like, ‘How they ditched her’. ‘Guess that answers that question’ Kakashi thought, as he looked back at the yard. Seeing there was still one weed, the jonin got up, lazily walked forward, pulled it out of the ground and threw it in the nearby garbage can. Another genin team would be assigned the D rank mission, to pick up the trash for this area. The copy-nin then disappeared in a swirl of leaves, thinking of how to properly scold the boys tomorrow.

* * *

 

            “Nice going Dobe, you got us caught” Sasuke grunted, he was tired and sweating from the kenjutsu training both boys were practicing. Glaring a little at his friend, Naruto simply huffed out, “I’m tired of D ranks” as he continued his sword katas. The sword was not his preferred weapon but it was Sasuke’s, so the blonde had been refreshing his skills as he taught his friend what he knew. Naruto was by no means a master with a sword, or any weapon for that matter, he preferred standard shuriken, kunai, and jutsu to a weapon. He did, however, know the basics of using any weapon in the Namikaze armory which ranged from standard swords and bo staffs, to specialties like the kusarigama and oddities like the kanabo. He was planning on killing Orochimaru after all, a man intent on learning everything, so Naruto believed he had to teach himself enough to counter anything. Hearing his own stomach growling, Naruto stopped sheathing his sword before turning to Sasuke, asking “Lunch break”. “Hm” was Sasuke’s response, which Naruto knew was an affirmative. So, the two went inside grabbing two prepared bento boxes off the kitchen counter before heading off to the main dining room to eat.

            It was as they were finishing their meal that they heard knocking at the front door. The two looked at each other for a moment, “Kakashi?” Sasuke guessed. Naruto shrugged, “Maybe”. Curious the two walked to the front door, opening it to reveal an annoyed looking Sakura. “You guys ditched me” she said, brushing past them both as she stormed in the house. Before either boy could defend themselves, she continued echoing their first lesson: “In the ninja world those that abandon their friends are worse than scum”. In truth, she was more hurt than angry, and she was hoping to make the boys feel guilty about leaving her all alone. She didn’t want to be left out and left behind. Had she known the response she’d get she probably never come here as Sasuke said, “We’re not friends”. The dark-haired boy’s tone was annoyed, he didn’t have time for this he needed to train, to get stronger, and even if Naruto said having friends would get him closer to his goal, Sasuke couldn’t see what this fangirl could offer him. Before Naruto could say anything to mitigate the damage, Sakura was already barreling past them and out the door at full tilt with tears welling up in her eyes.

            Naruto watched the girl go through the open gate and disappear out of sight, before he turned to Sasuke saying, “What the hell, Teme?” Sasuke stared back at him, arms crossing over his chest before saying, “What? She can’t help us, she’s not from a ninja clan she has no family jutsu”. Naruto’s hands visibly shook in frustration, as he replied, “She’s still friends with all of them and she’s still our teammate. She could be useful”. Sasuke scoffed at that before slamming the front door closed, “I doubt it”. For as long as he’d know the girl she had been his fangirl, sure she got good grades but if Kakashi’s training session proved anything to Sasuke it was she would be almost useless in the field. Naruto ground his teeth before saying, “You know to rebuild your clan you’re going to need a girl, right?” Sasuke, most definitely annoyed by the entire situation by now, replied, “Yeah well so will you, Namikaze”. Naruto smirked before turning around and walking back towards the training grounds, waving his hand noncommittally in the air as he responded, “Yeah well, I haven’t been an asshole to them now have I?” Sasuke remained standing in the entrance hallway a moment thinking, before he begrudgingly started following Naruto.

* * *

            When Naruto woke up the next day, he decided to try and smooth things over with Sakura; after all he didn’t want Kakashi to hold the whole team back just because the girl was pouting over what Sasuke said. So, he put on his black plants, light blue tee shirt, his favorite light grey jacket with the Namikaze symbol on the back, and finally completed his usual outfit with black ninja sandals. Heading down the stairs, he jogged to the kitchen and grabbed some fruit to snack on, then as the sun was still beginning to rise over the horizon he went to wait outside Sakura’s house. He only had to stand outside for thirty minutes or so before the pink-haired girl came out. “Can we talk?” Naruto asked, as he already began walking towards the girl. The girl gave a ‘hmph’ noise just standing there, crossing her arms, and lifting her chin. “I’m sorry for what the Teme said” Naruto said, his hands and arms raised suppliantly. When he got within arm’s reach, Sakura took a swing, he could’ve avoided it but he also knew taking a punch now would go far in making the girl feel better. So, he played the fool and let her hit him to the ground, before looking back up. Sakura looked back down on him, her light green eyes showing annoyance but not necessarily with him. “Wanted to make sure you weren’t a clone” Sakura said, simply before she began walking away towards the Hokage tower.

            It took Naruto only moments to get to his feet and catch up with her. He knew he had to handle this delicately, so he carefully began “Sakura, I really am sorry for what te--“. She cut him off midsentence, stopping in the middle of the street, tugging on his hand to make him face her, as she asked, “You two just left me… why? Why would he say something like that?” ‘Well this is interesting, this might just be the opportunity I needed’ Naruto thought. “Sakura, Sasuke and I both need to prove ourselves. We need to be stronger… Sasuke has only ever seen you acting like a fangirl, he doesn’t think you can help him” Naruto said, watching the girl carefully gauging her reaction. Hurt was evident, mild anger, and a litany of other emotions not worth mentioning but he thought he might’ve seen what he needed for just a moment. Still he felt it better to defuse the situation a little, scratching the back of his head with a grin on his face he said, “Plus Sakura it’s not like we weren’t there, our clones acted pretty much the way we do and we get their memories later”. Sakura looked a little disbelieving at him for a moment, so Naruto continued, “It’s true I remember every weed pulled, everyone of Tora’s scratches… and how much power you put behind that punch yesterday” as he said the last part he began rubbing the top of his head with a frown. This got a giggle from Sakura and left a small smile on her face. So, the two continued to the Hokage tower in peaceable silence.

            When they arrived outside the second-floor briefing room, Sasuke was already waiting there. The raven-haired boy gave a small nod in greeting to the both of them, which Naruto returned and Sakura pointedly ignored. It was there that the waited for their ever-late sensei, they watched genin teams go in and come back out grumbling about ‘stupid D rank missions’. After forty-five minutes or so the chronically late jonin showed up, saying, “Sorry, I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and I had to go back to sleep to fix it”. His genin were by now used to such terrible answers and they all simply rolled their eyes, almost in unison. This almost synchronicity although slightly amusing left Kakashi feeling unsettled, thinking for a split second ‘I’m outnumbered’. Kakashi then took a few steps forward and smacked Naruto in the back of the head, hard enough for the blonde to almost lose his balance. “What the hell sensei?” Naruto yelled, incensed. “Just making sure you’re not a clone” the jonin said, shrugging his shoulder, unknowingly echoing Sakura from earlier that day. Before he could do the same to Sasuke, however, Sakura had punched the boy hard in the gut thinking, ‘This’ll show you how strong I am’. The unexpected hit effectively knocked the breath out of the boy and made him keel over, his quick hands and quicker reflexes the only thing to stop him from hitting the ground face first. Watching the boy on all fours slowly regain his breath and rise to his feet, Kakashi’s only thought was, ‘What happened with them?’.

            Before he could ask, however, loud cheering could be heard from inside the briefing room, gaining all the members of Team 7 attention. The door to the briefing room opened and out came Team 8, Kiba’s smile was huge as he said, “I told you guys, it’d work”. Kurenai was giving him a slightly annoyed look but she couldn’t quite keep a small smile from gracing her lips. “There was nothing to suggest complaining louder would get better results” Shino said to his teammate matter-of-factly. “Hinata back me up here” Kiba said, his grin still wide showing off his impressive Inuzuka canines. Hinata blushed a little before saying, “You did say it Kiba but--” before she could continue Kiba was already saying, “But nothing. I said it now we’re going on a C rank mission. Speaking of which hurry up Tazuna”. As he said this a gray-haired old man who reeked of booze came out, saying, “I’m the one paying good money here. I can’t believe I’m still stuck with brats like you”. “You guys got a C rank” Naruto asked, the first of Team 7’s genin to recover. Kiba smirked towards the blonde, a wicked glint playing in his eyes, saying, “Of course. Why haven’t you?”. Before the discussion could really get going Kakashi grabbed Naruto by the back of his shirt and practically dragged him into the briefing room. Sasuke and Sakura seeing this followed without much protest, having no desire to be manhandled by their sensei.     

            After placing Naruto to his right Kakashi turned to look directly forward, facing the Third Hokage and some of the chunin. The Hokage had several scrolls in front of him labeled ‘D, C, B, and A’ and in these scrolls, were lists of available missions according to skill. “Team 7 reporting in” Kakashi said in his trademark lazy tone. “Hey, old man, we want a C rank” Naruto yelled suddenly, his arms crossed in front of him and his feet planted firmly. “Lord Namikaze--“ Iruka began, his voice straining to keep both the necessary formality and genuine frustration in his tone at once. But Iruka was cut off as Hiruzen explained, “There are no more low caliber C rank missions left. The mission Team 8 is going on only qualified because of a slight bandit danger”. “Then send us after some bandits” Naruto reasoned, his stance still defiant. “Naruto…” Kakashi warned lightly but Sasuke suddenly spoke up, “He’s right, we need a break from these stupid D ranks”. Kakashi looked between the two boys before his eyes went to Sakura, the girl seemed hesitant at first before she nodded her head in agreement. “If I have to weed one more yard, I’m using fire jut--“Naruto angry tirade was cut short as Kakashi looked to the Third and said, “Team 7 requesting a C rank mission”. ‘Maybe an actual mission will bring them closer together… I hope I don’t regret this’ Kakashi thought. The Third looked between the three genin, he could see how much they wanted this and he knew Naruto wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer. So, the Third looked down at his mission scroll trying to find a suitable mission, unfortunately most of the C ranks had already been assigned which only left one, which had almost been classified as a B rank.

            “This mission is not an average C rank, in fact it was almost a B rank” Hiruzen began, pausing a moment and considering just sending them off with no mission today so they could come back tomorrow. “Then send an extra chunin” Naruto replied, with a shrug, he wanted to go on this mission, he needed to test his strength. Hiruzen looked thoughtful for a moment, considering this, before he nodded his head. “The mission is to hunt down and eliminate a group of bandits. They are operating in the northern part of Kusa’s and southern portion Taki’s territory. Both villages have agreed to let Konoha handle it” Hiruzen said, explaining the core of mission to the genin.

            “Why can’t they use their own ninja” Sakura asked, confused on why a hidden village would hire another hidden village. Surprisingly, to his genin teammates at least, Naruto answered, “Waterfall has always been fiercely territorial, Grass-nin wouldn’t be safe if they crossed over into their territory. Grass can’t let Waterfall handle the situation alone because it would make them look weak”. ‘Well I’m glad to see he has learned something from his Hokage training’ Hiruzen thought to himself, as he took a long drag from his pipe. Wanting to see how much the boy really did understand the politics of ninja villages, Hiruzen asked, “And why did they not petition Stone for help, they are closer?” Naruto turned to face the Third, his blue eyes squinted in concentration, as he said, “Onoki is an opportunist if he thought either village weak he would try and exploit them. Whereas your ideas are geared more towards friendship and peace”. The adults in the room all gained small smiles at the boy’s accurate analysis, while his teammates watched in slight awe of this new side of him. “Jiji, if we’re searching for bandits it would be good to have a sensory type of some sort. I recommend Hana Inuzuka” Naruto said, quickly his face still pensive but his stance now almost entirely relaxed. Casting a brief glance to Kakashi, who gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head, Hiruzen smiled at the blonde and gave a single nod of his head in agreement. Iruka then quickly wrote out a missive for Hana and handed it to Hiruzen. The Hokage stamped it with his seal before handing it to Kakashi.

            “Dismissed” Hiruzen said, and Team 7 walked out the door. Once outside began jumping up and down yelling, “We’re going on a C rank”. His mood was infectious as Sakura began to laugh and pulled the blonde into a small jig. Even ever brooding Sasuke couldn’t stop his smile. “Alright meet at the western gate in one hour” Kakashi said, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves to go inform Hana of her new assignment. The genin dispersed immediately after that in order to gather their things for the mission.

* * *

          “You know I’m supposed to be off active duty for a week” Hana told Kakashi, her hands running through Ash’s, one of the Hairmaru triplets, fur. Her hair was pulled back into its usual pony tail while two brown locks framed her face, wearing her standard chunin gear, her vest not zipped up quite to regulation, not that Kakashi was complaining. “Naruto was the one to request you” Kakashi said, not bothering to look up from his book. Kakashi was feeling strange it had been a long time since he showed up on time for anything on time, much less been early, and yet here he was. Hana already annoyed at being called in for this mission had no intention on waiting for the jonin, so she had kept him in sight the entire time since getting her missive. “So, I have the brat to thank” Hana said, a feral grin spreading across her face as she cracked her knuckles. “My proper title is lord” Naruto replied, landing in front of the two adults. Before the silver-haired jonin knew what was going on, Hana had Naruto in a headlock with her left arm and was giving him a noogie* with her right fist. As Naruto wiggled out of her grip, Hana stated, “That’s what you get… my lord” adding the title mockingly, complete with a small bow. Naruto’s blue eyes glared at her black for a moment, before both of them burst into laughter. Over the years Naruto had made many friends, his friendship with Kiba made the blonde quite well liked in the Inuzuka family, his rivalry and ability to knock her overconfident little brother down a few pegs had made Hana Inuzuka like him even more.

            “Ahem” Kakashi awkwardly coughed out, trying to get both of their attentions. When the brunette and blonde turned to look at him, Kakashi began, “You both know where we’re going” he paused a moment to see a serious expression cross both their faces as they nodded, “then you both know Iwa is practically next door and if Onoki hears Naruto is--“. “I know sensei” Naruto interrupted, he did in fact know how dangerous this mission was… and he wanted it that way. “Stone has been trying to kill me all my life… let them come” Naruto said, his eyes turning icy and voice cold. Hana, whose right arm had been casually swung around the boy, looked at him cautiously this wasn’t a Naruto she was used to… ‘Then again, I haven’t had assassins coming after me my whole life’ she thought, as she squeezed her right arm giving the boy a side-hug in support. Naruto looked back at Hana and with a smile, saying, “Plus with you two here I got nothing to worry about, right?”. Hana laughed as she nodded her head, Kakashi too gave a small chuckle… but he still didn’t like that look Naruto had gotten, it was almost as if the boy was… eager. It wasn’t long after that when Sakura arrived, she was a bit dismayed at the fact Kakashi was here early, but quickly shook herself out of it excited for the mission. Then two minutes before the hour was up, Sasuke arrived in his regular blue shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back and white shorts. He carried his standard ninja gear, along with his sword strapped to his side and a backpack slung over his shoulders. Looking to his genin team Kakashi noticed how Sakura wasn’t fawning over Sasuke like she normally would, ‘Something is definitely up’ he deduced. The jonin was tempted to get them to talk it out while still behind the safety of Konoha’s walls but before he could Naruto yelled, “Come on guys we got a mission to complete!” and took off at a run through the village gate and down the road. ‘Well at least I’ll have another adult on the team to help out with the--‘, before he could finish that thought, Hana and the Haimaru triplets took off at a sprint after Naruto, the chunin laughing her ass off as she followed Naruto. She was then followed by his genin. ‘Well… this’ll be interesting’ Kakashi thought as he too began to run after the blonde.      

* * *

 

            “We’ll stop here for the night” Kakashi said, raising his right hand bringing those behind him to a halt. The group had made good time, in part due to Naruto’s impeccable stamina which allowed him to keep the pace at a run for the first few hours only coming to a brief rest when Sakura almost tripped in exhaustion, then Kakashi took over at the front of the group keeping it quick but moderate. “Sasuke get a fire going” Kakashi ordered, as his eyes scanned the glade the group stopped in. “I’ll get the tents” Naruto said, pulling a scroll from his backpack. ‘He brought tents?’ Kakashi thought briefly confused, as he watched the blonde funnel a bit of chakra into the storage scroll. “Hana think you can scrounge us up some game” Naruto asked, as he began fitting together simple interlocking metal tent poles. Hana looked to Kakashi for a moment for permission, when the jonin simply nodded his head, she smiled and replied to the boy, “Of course”. Standing up she swiftly walked into the woods calling for the Haimaru triplets over her shoulder, “Ash, Storm, Snow come on”. “Who taught you fuinjutsu?” Kakashi asked the blonde, it wasn’t standard academy stuff and while seals were useful he was curious on who thought it necessary to teach the boy. “I taught myself, mostly. It wasn’t that hard, there’s a ton of Uzumaki scrolls on pretty much any and every concept of sealing” Naruto explained offhandedly, as he finished snapping together the first small tent, it was simple: two poles in a downward ‘V’ shape and one long pole connecting them.

            Sitting between her jonin sensei and her blonde teammate Sakura was starting to feel a little useless as she watched everyone doing something. Even Kakashi was glancing over the mission file as he was talking with Naruto, who was tightly securing a green canvas to the poles. “Hey, Sakura, could you help me with this?” Naruto asked, holding up the next set of tent poles. He didn’t need her help of course, they all knew that, but Sakura still accepted grateful for something to do. With the two of them working on it they had set up four tents in no time. As Naruto was rolling the scroll closed and putting it back in his backpack, Sakura asked befuddled, “Wait, don’t we need another tent?”. The blonde looked to Sakura for a moment before he turned his blue eyes to his sensei, “Kakashi?”. The jonin looked up from the mission scroll before nodding his head ‘no’, explaining, “Someone will need to be on watch, so four tents should do”. Naruto gave his sensei a single nod as he zipped his backpack closed, Sakura now again with nothing to do simply sat next to her teammate. Soon after that, Sasuke had finished gathering up the wood necessary for the evening, then the group cleared a small area in front of the tents for a fire pit, and a short fire jutsu later the jonin and his genin were bathed in the light of the campfire. Fifteen minutes later Hana came out of the woods triumphantly, with six dead rabbits slung over her shoulder tied together with ninja wire. “You were the slowest” Naruto said, as she approached the fire with a smile tugging his lips upward. “That’s because my job was the hardest” Hana replied without missing a beat, her fake scowl not holding up well as she neared the group.

            Skinning the rabbits was a bloody bunny business but it was worth it in the end as they tasted rather good after a full day of travel. Three rabbits went to the humans and three to the dogs. After dinner Kakashi passed the mission scroll around the group, after ordering each of them to memorize it. When it finally got back to him, the silver-haired ninja looked to his genin asking, “You got it?”. After receiving three nods of the head from them, the jonin threw the scroll into the campfire, the dry paper going up in smoke almost instantaneously. There was still a mission statement archived in Konoha obviously, but it was standard procedure to burn the field scroll as soon as it was no longer needed. After explaining that to his genin, Kakashi assigned the watch schedule: Hana would go first, followed by Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto, finally Kakashi would have the last watch. With that the group went to bed, excluding Hana as she climbed a nearby tree with good sightlines to begin her watch.

* * *

            Kakashi didn’t hear anyone coming to get him but years of practice had taught his body how to wake up on time for his shift on watch. So, the silver-haired jonin laid there in his olive-green tent with a grey blanket wrapped around him, as he waited for his blonde genin to come and officially turn over sentry duty to him. Kakashi waited… and he wait, but Naruto didn’t come. Suddenly, remembering who his student was, Kakashi thought something bad could have happened and hurriedly zipped up his jonin vest as he scrambled out of the tent. Remaining in a low crouch, he drew a kunai, and went to investigate the tree they had designated as the lookout point. Coming to a stop beneath its branches, Kakashi looked up to see Naruto. “What’s with you?” Naruto asked, not even bothering to look at his sensei as his eyes continued to scan the woods. Instead of answering Kakashi asked his own question, “Why didn’t you wake me?”. Naruto looked at the jonin then, shrugging once before saying, “Thought you could use the sleep. I’ll be fine being a jinchuriki and all, you should go back to bed”. Kakashi watched the boy for a moment, something wasn’t quite right about him.

* * *

            Naruto stood in the open clearing not far from their base camp, as his clones puffed into smoke in front of him he let his hands fall to his side. Their memories weren’t pleasant but it was necessary. ‘Well five fewer seals is better than nothing but I need more practice’ Naruto thought. Just as he was about to make more clones to practice, one of the clones guarding his back dispelled itself letting him know Kakashi was coming. Turning around to face were the jonin would emerge, Naruto waited his practice done for now. As the silver-haired jonin approached he knew he’d been made and so he didn’t bother to try and spy on the boy. “Naruto” he greeted, stepping into a small clearing the boy had found, sending a quick glance over the blonde’s shoulder Kakashi saw nothing worrying. Nothing at all in fact, the clearing looked remarkably undisturbed.  

            “Kakashi sensei” the blonde greeted his voice even, but his lips twitching in amusement as he watched the jonin try and put things together. “How did you find me?” Naruto asked, his posture open but his eyes were guarded. “I may not have the nose of an Inuzuka but I’m not a terrible tracker” Kakashi explained, raising his right hand a tapping his mask where his nose was. “Right, that’s in your file” Naruto said, smiling and nodding his head. “You’ve read my file” Kakashi asked, wondering just how much he knew. “Well the parts that weren’t blacked out” the boy answered easily. “How’d you get it?” Kakashi wondered, a genin shouldn’t have access to information like that. “Council member” was Naruto’s only answer not caring to elaborate.

            “How’d you get past my clone” Naruto asked curious, he had told the clones to dispel themselves if need be. “Tied him up before he could plunge a kunai into his own chest” Kakashi remarked lightly, jokingly adding, “You got a death wish, I need to know about”. Naruto merely shook his head ‘no’ as he stared at Kakashi. “You should guard us yourself you know? What if you got in trouble? What if the camp was really in danger? Your clones are good but they’re not that good” Kakashi told the boy, honestly. “I have over a hundred clones in these woods” Naruto stated nonchalantly, “I think I’ll be fine”. ‘So that’s how he knew I was coming’ Kakashi thought, before he spoke carefully, “Still you can send clones out here to practice if you need to but your real self would be safer back at camp” Kakashi began to lecture. “Who said I was practicing, maybe I came out here to think” Naruto countered. Silence settled between the two as Kakashi stared at the boy, ‘Does he really think I’m that stupid’ the jonin thought before asking, “Thinking about what?” Naruto smiled walking past the man and replied, “Private thoughts” as he began walking back to base camp.

            The jonin cast one quick look back towards the clearing, when something caught his eye. Approaching quickly, he picked it up. It was a squirrel, a dead one at that, ‘That’s odd’ he noted as there weren’t any wounds on the thing. Standing in the clearing he noticed something else, it was dead silent no birds, no insects, just nothing. Dropping the dead animal, Kakashi turned on his heel and began jogging back to base camp. When he arrived, Naruto had already begun skinning this morning’s breakfast, the blonde had ordered his clones to snag some small game hours before and they delivered. As Kakashi sat down on the log next to Naruto and skewered the newly skinned rabbit on a long piece of wood before placing it above the fire, the jonin decided to keep an even closer watch on Naruto for the remainder of this mission.    

* * *

               It had been three days since Kakashi had found Naruto that morning and the blonde was more than a little irritated with the man. ‘How am I supposed to practice and get stronger, when he is always around’ he grumbled in an inner monologue to himself. “We got something” Hana called over her shoulder to the group as she and her dogs sniffed the air. The group had arrived in Kusa yesterday evening thanks to the fast pace Naruto insisted on using, despite Kakashi telling him to slow down. The group once in Kusa, headed towards some of the hillier northern areas based on previous intelligence reports. A wise decision, considering they may have just found their targets. Following the Inuzuka, Team 7 jumped though the tree branches as fast they could without making noise until Hana lifted her hand signaling for them to slow down. The group crept forward, light shimmering down from the gaps in the canopy above as the Konoha-nin saw the trees thin out in front of them.

            Hana was the first to see them. Thirteen bandits in all, some were carrying spears, others swords, one had a bow, and the other must have had small knives strapped to them but Hana couldn’t be sure. The bandit group was walking along the edge of a large ravine towards a wooden bridge held together with a bit of rope. Scooting back farther into the forest, Hana relayed the information to Kakashi. The group wasn’t big enough to be the one they were hunting, “We should watch and wait” Kakashi said, gaining a nod of approval from the chunin and scowls from his male genin. Just as they were about to fall back though an arrow came whizzing over their heads. Before Kakashi could even figure out how they’d been made, Naruto had drawn two kunai and holding them in a reverse grip charged the bandits.

            The first bandit went down easily enough, as he was preparing to cleave Naruto’s head off with his sword, Kakashi sent a shuriken flying into his face. Naruto took care of the second one, sliding under his spear thrust and between his legs, before the blonde cut both his Achilles tendons. As the bandit hit the ground Naruto flipped the kunai in his right hand into a standard grip and jumping onto his feet he drove the black blade into the back of the man’s skull, leaving the kunai there as the blonde moved on to his next opponent. Hana and her dogs unleashed the Inuzuka family’s famous Fang Passing Fang Jutsu to kill three on her own. Sakura remained further back throwing kunai at anyone who tried to get behind her teammates, she would go the whole fight without killing anyone. Sasuke had got in close to one using a spear and after a series of slashes with his sword the bandit was close enough to the edge to kick him off. Before his foot had even disconnected with the spear bandit, Sasuke was already throwing a shuriken towards another. This bandit however proved to actually be somewhat skilled as he dodged it. The skilled bandit then grabbed three of his cohorts putting much needed distance between themselves and the ninjas. The rest of his comrades already fallen to Naruto’s relentless pursuit or Kakashi trying to cover the boy’s flank. Bring his hands together the skilled bandit flashed through multiple hand signs before bringing his hands down on the ground, yelling, “Earthen Dome Defense Jutsu”. As soon as his hands touched dirt, the ground around him erupted pulling up stones and minerals as it formed a dome structure. Not to be deterred the blonde jinchurki produced four shadow clones, which surrounded the structure on four sides. The clones then flashed through their own hand signs before spouting a continuous fireball jutsu onto the earthen dome.  

            Inside the dome, one of the bandits asked, “Kuuta what do we do?” Kuuta, the skilled bandit, began flashing though a few hand signs. Outside Kakashi standing behind the blonde asked, “Naruto what are you doing?” Turning slightly to look at Kakashi, Naruto showed him the explosive kunai saying, “Ending this” as he threw it toward the dome. A few seconds later an explosion broke part of the dome open, and the flames that Naruto’s clones were producing poured in incinerating everything inside. “That wasn’t all of them, we could have questioned them” Kakashi said, his voice hard at having just watched his sensei’s son kill so calmly. ‘It shouldn’t be that easy for him’ Kakashi thought, in the heat of the battle maybe but what he just did was practically an execution. Naruto turned back to fully look at the man, his clones dispelled behind him, their job done. “None of us are trained integrators, even so it is more likely they’d give us useless information or send us into a trap rather than tell us the truth” Naruto replied, voice calm and eyes cold. “Now the rest will come looking for their friends and we get to set the trap” the blonde continued, he looked like he was going to say more but something caught his eye behind Kakashi. Turning Kakashi saw it too.

            Sasuke was standing at the edge of the chasm staring down at the broken body of the man he sent to his death. “I’ll handle it” Naruto said, Kakashi was about to protest when he continued, “his brother did it for me…it’s the least I can do”. So, the silver-haired jonin stood there as he watched Naruto walk towards Sasuke. ‘At least he still cares about something’ the jonin thought, a sad smile gracing his lips beneath his mask.

* * *

            “Kuuta what are you doing here? You’re supposed to raid another of Taka’s civilian hamlets” a gruff voice said, looking at the man who’d just came into his earthen hut. “We were attacked, I got away using a tunneling jutsu” Kuuta replied, a small odd smile gracing his lips as he continued, “the attackers, they were Leaf-nin. One of them was a blonde kid… wearing the Namikaze crest”. ‘This was just supposed to be a simple operation, support some bandits make Kusa and Taka look weak and make some money… but now things are getting interesting’ the large man thought. A smile crossed his lips as his gruff voice said, “They finally let him beyond their walls. … Akiro”. “Yes, Haru?” one of the men in the hut answered, he was a young freshly minted chunin. Haru lumbered back into the hut for moment before strapping a huge hammer over his back. “Go back to Stone territory get more men and send a scroll to Onoki, we’re finally going to get his prize” Haru said, looking to his fellow stone-nin he asked, “Aren’t we?”. The stone-nin cheered back their agreement at him, excited to prove their worth, excited to bring back the Namikaze’s head.      

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me just say this first: I loved the wave arc, I really did but a lot of fics redo the wave arc almost scene-by-scene and honestly if I wrote it I'd be tempted to do that too. So instead I went with fighting some stone-nin... sorry? The good news is that since I sent a different team to handle Tazuna, the outcome may be different. (Note this counts as one of my major plot points so rage at me if you must but I still won't change it) 
> 
> Anyway the other thing I wanted to mention was that: *noogie totally has it's own definition on Merriam-Webster... just thought I'd share that with you. 
> 
> So yeah, feel free to let me know what you think.


	6. Treewalking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting in a really long time, it was a mixture of life and this chapter intimidating me.

Hiruzen Saurtobi was a ninja of extreme caliber and he had seen many things in his years of service. Nevertheless, when a bruised and limping Kakashi walked into his office, even the God of Shinobi felt unsettled. Collapsing into one of room’s chairs, with a heavy thump, Kakashi let out a long sigh. “Report” Hiruzen demanded, as he slowly overcame his shock. Kakashi began, his voice tired, “The mission didn’t go exactly as expected…”

* * *

Three days earlier:

“Sasuke” Naruto said, trying to get the slightly older boy’s attention. Sasuke looked up from the mess of vomit he just let hit the local shrubbery, to his blonde friend. As black eyes met blue, only one question came to Sasuke’s mind, “How do you do it?”. Naruto looked straight back at his friend, remembering when his own lips uttered those same words. ‘Had I looked like this? Did my voice carry the same lilt? Was I this broken?’ before he could ponder it any further though, Naruto quoted the words that everyday reverberated through his whole being, saying “I remind myself that what I do is in defense of the village and those dear to me”. Sasuke was resistant to the idea, he had only killed the man minutes ago and his mind wasn’t quite ready to let him forgive himself yet. So, scoffing he turned his disbelieving eyes away from the Namikaze as he muttered, “Why’d I bother asking a dobe anyway”. “It was Itachi who told me that” Naruto said. Sasuke’s head snapped towards Naruto in an instant. Seeing this the blonde continued, “He gifted me with his reason, so I could bear the burden demanded of shinobi… just as I’m now giving it to you. Accept or don’t… but never say it’s stupid”.

Sasuke stood there in the lightly wooded area near the chasm. The smell of death still lingered even though the older members of the group had begun casting the bodies over the cliffside. It was at this moment Sasuke remembered something very important, something he never thought he would’ve been able to forget but he had somehow as he brain was short-circuited from the violence. It was with an angry voice with a barely their tremble of fear that Sasuke asked, “What if I can’t kill him?”. It was his whole reason for existing, the one goal of his wretched life, and he had believed with absolute certainty that he would one day achieve it. However, his brain was currently filled with whispers of doubt, if he struggles with taking a life now how could he count on himself to strike the final blow in the future.

The reply was calm and without any hint of reservation, as Naruto said, “Then I’ll kill him”. A gentle breeze passed through the woods then carrying a few lone leaves between the boys, the perfect silence that descended on the scene was only interrupted as Naruto answered, Sasuke’s unasked question, “I’ll kill him, so that bastard can’t take anything else from me or anyone else”. Hearing that undoubted resolve in the blonde’s voice, had an amazing effect on Sasuke. “No, you won’t” the raven-haired boy replied, before smirking and continuing, “because I’m going to get to him first, for my clan, for Konoha, and for myself”. With a firm nod to one another the boys began walking their way back to the temporary camp their team was setting up near the bridge.

* * *

The leaf shinobi decided to make camp near the bridge, they were going to scout out the area and prepare a trap for the bandits. The senior members had reasoned it would take at least a day before the main group learned of their comrades’ fates. Considering that a full day was more than enough time for such experienced ninjas to come up with an ambush, Kakashi decided to give his genin a few hours to rest and process. Meanwhile, Hana and her ninja hounds were on the other side of the ravine scouting out the area as well as scrounging up some dinner.

Sitting on a low hanging branch of a tree near the quickly forming campsite, Kakashi let his eye roam over his team. Sakura was examining her remaining and recovered kunai, keeping a careful mental count as she wiped gore from the black steel. ‘Approaching it like an equation, subtracting supplies and equating lives’, the thought brought a barely there smile to his lips, he had seen the approach before from fellow shinobi and was unsurprised Sakura would cope like that. Fighting against an opponent that was trying to kill you was rattling for most genin but she was doing well. ‘All of them are doing well’ Kakashi thought as he let his eye drift to Sasuke, ‘remarkable well’. Sasuke had taken it upon himself to gather firewood and kindling, emphatically stating, “I’m fine” when Kakashi told him he should just rest. He seemed fine, better than could be expected even. It was with this knowledge that Kakashi waved Naruto, who had just finished setting up the tents, over to him. The blonde cast a brief glance over his work before heeding his sensei’s request, standing to attention in front of him. Kakashi patted the empty spot on the branch next to him. Once his student was situated next to him. Kakashi asked, “So what’d you say to him?”.

There was a beat of silence before the blonde replied, “What he needed to hear”. Kakashi looked at the boy, expecting to hear more. When he didn’t Kakashi prompted him with nudge and asking, “Which was?”. Naruto, whose eyes had remained on Sasuke since hopping up onto the branch, replied, “What needed to be said” another nudge from his sensei let Naruto know he wasn’t getting off that easy. He sighed briefly, before elaborating, “I reminded him for who and what we do this for” glancing to his sensei and gesturing vaguely to the leaf hitai-ate he wore. Kakashi nodded and gave his infamous eye smile, before saying, “The simplest reasons are often the truest”. “Yeah” Naruto agreed, turning his head back to watch over his teammates. “Still, he’s handling this remarkably well” Kakashi said, watching the raven hair boy set up a fire pit. “The academy tries it’s best to ready its students for this, even it only just happened he’s still had years to come to grips with in way” Naruto explained, giving a nonchalance shrug of the shoulders. The topic got Kakashi thinking, about incident that happened less than a decade ago. ‘True, the academy prepares its students… but you didn’t have any training did you, not really… not for that’ the jonin thought, while glancing at his genin from the corner of his eye. It was at that moment that Kakashi was never more grateful to Itachi Uchiha. Sure, Itachi had served with him in ANBU and had saved his life more than a dozen times, but Itachi somehow finding a way of helping a child adjust to the cruel realities of the world meant more to the silver haired jonin than he could describe. ‘Maybe Itachi can help me one last time, maybe talking about him will be a step in the right direction with my student’ Kakashi thought before remarking, “Itachi was a wise man”. “Yeah” was the reply from Naruto, which was to be expected… what the jonin hadn’t expected was Naruto’s hand the clench for a barely there moment. ‘Wrong step’ Kakashi admitted in his head. Before he could say anything else Hana appeared on the other side of the ravine with a fawn flung over her shoulders, giving Naruto an easy exit as he moved to help her. As Kakashi watched his blonde student walkaway he couldn’t help but wonder if his student would ever really trust him, if Naruto would ever be completely honest with him, and what it would take to make trust a reality. 

* * *

“Do we move in now?” one of the bandits asked Haru. ‘What’s his name… it starts with a C or was it a B’ Haru briefly thought as he regarded the cannon fodder. “No not yet” Haru replied. It looked like the unnamed idiot wanted to say more but a flick of the wrist from Haru let the man know his audience with the boss had ended. “Kenta, you’re sure we’re far enough back” Haru asked, the only other jonin and the only sensory type ninja sent on this mission. Kenta nodded saying, “Based on what Kuuta said, they’re sensor type focuses on smell. We’re downwind of them here and far enough away that even I can barely sense them, and I already know their there”. “And if the wind changes?” Haru asked. “Then I’ll perform a moderately sized sulfur release jutsu, it’ll cover our scent and they might mistake it for a rotting animal” Kenta replied bored. Haru nodded reaching his left hand back over his shoulder and rubbing his fingers across the haft of his hammer.

“Give me your headband” Kenta requested, his hand already out expectantly. Haru confused slightly obliged, pulling his headband from his back pouch, they weren’t wearing them since while this mission was profitable for Iwa it had the potential to sully their relations with other magistrates wanting protection from bandits. As soon as the headband was in Kenta’s hand , he pulled out a kunai and dragged it across the metal. Before Haru could raise his indigination however, Kenta explained, “If one survives they can’t have definitive proof Iwa did it, it would undoubtedly start a war”. “So?” Haru interjected, never being one to shy away from a fight. “So Iwa isn’t ready for a full on war yet, our numbers are still replenishing from the last war” Kenta replied. “Then why even wear Iwa hitai-ates?” Haru asked. “Because if we kill them wearing these then everyone will still know Iwa is responsible, it will just give both Onoki and that weak Hokage a chance at plausible deniability. Thus, the war can be averted for a few more years” Kenta replied, speaking slowly like he was explaining it to a child as he handed Haru his headband back.

Haru accepted it, rubbing his fingers over the slash with a small frown before looking back at Kenta. He wasn’t a fan of hiding but he also knew some things were beyond him. Truth be told, he was glad to have Kenta with him since they complimented each other well. Haru was usually put in charge because he could always be relied on to brute force a solution, but Haru still felt better with Kenta here to come up with an actual plan. Turning to look at his fellow jonin, Haru asked, “So when do we move in?” Kenta smiled a bit at the eagerness of Haru’s voice, he could always count of the muscle head to want a fight. “Soon” Kenta replied, hoping up the tree branches to get a better vantage point.

* * *

As Hana set about preparing the meat, Kakashi made note of the quickly falling sun and decided to teach his team a technique to help with the ambush. “Anyone want to learn a new chakra technique?” the jonin asked, knowing full well both boys would be eager at the chance and Sakura would be too in the hopes of keeping up with her teammates. Without bothering to explain himself any further Kakashi stood up and walked into the woods, not even looking behind him to check if his genin were coming. As he walked further away from camp the jonin let himself be moderately impressed with the lack of noise his genin were making in following him, while not perfect it was still above average stealth for genin. Kakashi stopped when he found three moderately tall trees with a few feet of space in between them, and fat trunks. ‘These should do nicely’ the jonin thought, before turning around to address his genin. “Today you all will be learning to climb trees” he said, seeing their unimpressed expressions he added “using only your feet”. Sakura looked at him like he was crazy but kept her mouth shut as she noticed her teammates weren’t of the same mind. In fact, Sasuke and Naruto looked thoroughly unimpressed. Kakashi was expecting at least a little some enthusiasm, not to be perturbed though he decided to demonstrate the technique for his genin walking up the middle tree about thirty feet before turning around to explain what to do to his genin. The sight that greeted Kakashi was a slacked jawed Sakura standing there alongside an annoyed looking Sasuke. Immediately Kakashi’s eye widened a bit wondering where his other male genin was till he heard someone clearing their throat to his right.

Looking he saw Naruto standing parallel to the ground on his own tree, just as high as him. “I learned this before I went to the Academy… in fact, you’ve seen me do this” the blonde said, tapping foot while his tone conveyed annoyed. Kakashi was aware of that fact indeed… he just hadn’t recalled it immediately. Before Kakashi could regain his composure, Sasuke yelled, “Hey dobe how come you never showed me that?” “You always preferred flashy ninjutsu” the blonde replied bored. “Well how do you do it?” the raven-haired boy asked. Soon one thing led to another and Kakashi was sidelined from his own lesson as Naruto explained the how-to regarding the tree climbing exercise. Instead of minding Kakashi just shrugged jumping off the tree and flipping to the ear marked page of his favorite little orange book before he even hit the ground. The jonin then found a nice comfortable spot to sit down nearby while his genin learned chakra control. ‘And they say I’m a bad teacher’ Kakashi thought to himself with a small smile before delving into his raunchy novel.

* * *

The venison went done smoothly and tasted wonderful, the genin were getting under the impression that when traveling with an Inuzuka the meats would always be prepared expertly. In truth Hana just happened to be a good cook. Training had gone well, with Sakura mastering the exercise with ease and then both Sakura and Naruto helping Sasuke learn the delicacies he seemed to be missing. The genin had trained till the sun went down and then kept going till Hana sent Ash to collect them. Alas it was starting to get late and the genin were dead tired, so they called it an early night with Hana taking first watch. The campfire was doused for stealth’s sake and the genin had a little trouble navigating their way to their tents in the pitch blackness. Kakashi stayed up a few minutes more, scanning the area as best he could before he too went to bed.

* * *

An hour had passed since Kakashi and the genin went to sleep, Hana patrolled the light woods around the camp visually securing a twenty-meter perimeter around the camp. Of course, as she was scanning her surroundings with her eyes she was also analyzing the scents of the forest. Her hounds were well behaved sticking close to her side although Storm had been nudging Snow repeatedly over the past several minutes. ‘Honestly, he has to be the most troublesome pup in a generation’ Hana thought to herself with a rueful smile, as she flicked Storm across the back of his ear to get him to behave. The patrol was just coming to the midway point, where the camp would be smooshed between them and the bridge, when Hana sense of smell was overwhelmed with sulfur. The smell was unbearable, disorienting her and the dogs. Before she could contemplate what made such a terrible stench, she heard the pounding of feet across the forest floor.

Turning she saw a horde of bandits charging her with their weapons drawn. “KAKASHI!” she yelled out warning the jonin, as she backpedaled so she could have a tighter perimeter to defend. As she came closer to camp she began engaging in a fighting retreat, using her family's Fang-Over-Fang jutsu to rip into the fastest of the bandits, while simultaneously tearing trenches into the terrain to slow the incoming wave of flesh. Still the bandits weren’t entirely helpless as some started firing arrows both at her and the camp.

Meanwhile the silver-haired jonin was out of his tent in an instant zipping his vest up with one hand and drawing a kunai with the other. The less experienced genin were able to force themselves out of their tents but were still slow on the uptake. Throwing his kunai with practiced precision Kakashi disposed of bandit after bandit, every kunai sinking deeply into a vital area and the next blade in his hand before the previous found its mark. Realizing the situation Sasuke drew his sword and Naruto pulled out two kunai and they took up defensive positions a few feet ahead of Kakashi. Sakura meanwhile threw several kunai with flash-tags attached above the forest canopy to illuminate the enemy numbers. What the brief flashes showed was several dozen men charging full tilt with more behind them.

When Storm was a bit too slow, still disoriented by the amount of large sulfur in the air, in his dodging of a bandit’s arrow that lodged itself firmly into his right back leg Hana’s defense was forced back further. No longer having the room to maneuver and use her family jutsu freely she and her hounds were forced into more conventional fighting. She took up a position next to Kakashi drawing dual kunai of her own like Naruto had. “How’d they get this close?” Kakashi asked, as he parried a man’s sword away before countering with his own lethal slash to the throat. Before Hana could respond however the ground the camp was situated on turned into a massive mudslide that sent Konoha nin and bandit alike towards the ravine. Looking towards the forest Kakashi spotted six men with their hands slammed against the ground the word ‘Ninja’ flashing through his mind.

The Konoha nin largely taken by surprise were not able to compensate for the loss of footing and were quickly sent towards the edge. Kakashi cast a brief glance to Hana, which the chunin returned with a grin before she turned her body towards the ravine and began actively moving towards the edge. Not knowing what she was planning but trusting her to survive Kakashi then turned to his genin. Sasuke apparently had tried to stab his sword into the ground to stop his sliding but the ground gave way underneath his blade, Sakura was trying to apply chakra to her feet so she could stand on top of the mud with no success, and Naruto even sliding backwards was still stonily staring at the recently revealed ninjas in the distance. Thinking quickly Kakashi wrapped the hilt of kunai with ninja wire before yelling to his genin, “Grab each other’s hands”. Once this was done and they had formed a human chain with Sasuke in the middle, Kakashi grabbed Naruto’s free hand before throwing his kunai at the opposite side of the ravine. As soon as the blade sunk into the chasm wall Kakashi forced a large amount of chakra to his feet pushing himself off from the ravine wall and swinging to the other side. Once there he and his genin quickly applied chakra to the feet and stuck to the wall. Chancing a few seconds to look down, Kakashi saw Hana and her dogs had somehow managed to arrive at the bottom of the ravine alive.

It wasn’t long however before Kakashi heard the whizzing sound of projectiles as shuriken, kunai both explosive and nonexplosive began to rain down on them from the now mud free side of the ravine. “To the bridge” Kakashi yelled to his team, knowing would be best to maintain equal footing with their opponents. The jonin began moving towards the bridge returning fire with his own kunai which were aimed at both the enemy and the incoming explosive kunai he could spot. Sakura and Sasuke also tried to help throwing out their own shuriken but, since they had just learned the tree walking exercise today, they still had to concentrate on maintaining chakra in their feet and their accuracy clearly suffered for it. Naruto however was able to both keep pace with Kakashi and accurately hit the enemy. As the first wave of counter fire began hitting the other group Kakashi noted that instead of falling over dead they crumpled into pieces. ‘Earth clones’ Kakashi thought, as he neared the bridge. Before he could get they’re though the ground beneath his feet gave way into mud yet again, only this time the mud release jutsu was used close enough to the bridge so that its moors on that side gave way. Like before Kakashi fished a kunai out of his pouch and tied it with ninja wire, his genin were already grabbing onto each other too. He then sent it towards the other side where it found perchance for only a moment before that side to gave way into a muddy waterfall. Freefalling the legendary Konoha nin yelled his plan B, “Naruto, clones!” Not needing any further instruction, the blonde brought his hands into a familiar cross saying, “Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu”. There was a brief large puff of smoke before a literal mass of Naruto’s appeared to cushion the groups fall.

Landing on the blondes was not ideal and a few were dispersed with the force of impact but the genin and sensei survived. Without a moment wasted the group and remaining clones turned their heads towards the top of the ravine, prepared to go another round of exchanging fire with the enemy. So, they were surprised when they saw no one near the edge of the chasm. “Where are they?” Sakura asked, a hint of fear in her tone as kunai in her hands shook from adrenaline. At the same moment two tall earthen walls appeared on both the groups right and left side. Kakashi moved his headband revealing his sharingan as he knew the enemy clearly held a tactical advantage. Sasuke upon seeing this was about to question how the man had his clan’s kekkei genkai but stopped himself after a look from Kakashi, which clearly said this wasn’t the time. Hana and her dogs having focused more chakra in their senses once the fight had begun in earnest, were the first to hear it. Kakashi was the next to hear it, the low rumbling emanating from the chasm wall, saying “We need to mo—”, before being interrupted by the water dragon jutsu erupting from the chasm wall in front of the group. The dragon soared towards them immediately, the group was luckily fast enough to jump out of the way but the ground they had been standing on exploded with the force of the jutsu. Moreover, the chasm then started to fill with water as the new channel to wherever the water dragon came from was opened, with nowhere to go due to the walls the team was quickly up to their knees in water. Funneling some chakra to their feet Kakashi, Naruto, Hana, and even the ninja hounds were able to stand on the water’s surface. Sasuke and Sakura however hadn’t learned this skill yet and were left in the water. Before the group had any real chance to recuperate and catch their breath shuriken and kunai again began to rain town on them. The group began to deflect the projectiles, but the water was still climbing and the fighting along with a full day of training for the genin was beginning to fatigue them.

Ordering the clones, he had left to act as human shields Naruto was able to buy himself some time. Using that small opening Naruto weaved through a few hand signs pumping a more than ample amount of chakra into his jutsu before yelling, “Great Breakthrough Jutsu”. The torrent of air he let loose from his mouth was enough to repel the incoming weapons and give their own a boost to hit the enemies up above them. The breather didn’t last long though as the enemy tried a new tactic, angling their throws of explosive kunai so that the explosions would blow chunks of debris from this ravine’s walls. Hana and her hounds took the lead as they began performing multiple Fang-Over-Fang Jutsu to crush the rocks nearest the group. Her defense was stopping the rocks but came to an abrupt halt as Hana was hit by electricity. Observing the enemy that now reappeared on the high ground Kakashi was able to recognize d-rank lightning jutsu as the Lightning Bolt Jutsu. Kakashi also realized that they were now in fact standing in water that Sakura and Sasuke were now stuck in water up to their chests. “Naruto, we can’t let any of those bolts hit the water” Kakashi ordered, before casting a quick look to Hana. She had a few visible electrical burns but was already back on her feet. “Hana keep your focus on the rocks” the jonin ordered. “What should I do?” Sasuke asked, hating the fact he was being left out. Before Kakashi had a chance to tell him he should just focus on staying above water Naruto answered, “Use some fire jutsu on that” pointing towards the hole in the chasm wall the water dragon had made that was still pouring out water. Without hesitation the black-haired boy began weaving handsigns for the Fireball Jutsu. The fire produced didn’t cover the entire hole but it evaporated some of the incoming water and the steam produced helped block the vision of a few of the hostile ninja above.

Sakura watched her teammates continue the fight. Hana was good but she was obviously getting tired as her moves slowed down. Kakashi was countering the weak lightning jutsu with his own with unbelievable speed and Naruto was dispersing the bolts with the use of his own repertoire of wind jutsu, but their defense was still clearly hard pressed. Even Sasuke, her Sasuke, was forced to stop his fire jutsu because he required his hands to tread the water. As she was forced to being treading water Sakura began thinking about how they could press an offensive if they had no need to defend her and Sasuke. One word kept ringing throughout her head ‘Useless’. ‘No, I’m not. I refuse to be’ Sakura thought to herself. Pulling her kunai pouch off her belt, Sakura brought it above the water, so she could look at it. It took a while and she briefly went under twice since she was only treading with her feet but she finally she was able to draw out her prepared explosive kunai. She took a brief moment to yell out the vague warning, “Everyone get ready” before throwing the kunai at the earthen wall to their right. A few moments later the explosion destroyed the wall, she felt the wind get knocked out of her chest as the explosion’s shockwave carried back through the water to her, but the pain was bearable. As the wall came down the pent-up water was allowed to flow repentantly through the ravine, swiftly dragging all the leaf shinobi with it.

* * *

“They escaped” one of Kuuta’s earth clones reported, his grip tightening on his explosive kunai. “No, they haven’t, they’ve merely prolonged the inevitable” Kenta replied, before looking towards Haru. “You may just get to smash that Namikaze’s head in like you wanted” the sensor jonin informed his comrade. Haru smiled for the first time since the fight started, he really did love direct confrontation, and he said, “Then let’s get going”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is not how I originally pictured this chapter going but I think it works. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments, I hope my absence and/or writing style hasn't scared too many of you away.


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